FAMILY FRIDAY

one of the best family fridays ever. kiah slept until like 9:00 while stephen went out to play indoor with his buds. by the time he got home kiah was up so we had some breakfast and showered. 1st stop, starbucks! kiah was being such a good girl and played in the stroller while stephen and i caught up on some much needed heart to heart conversation. stephen ordered his first ever gingerbread latte. i am so proud of him for trying it! then we walled from my favorite starbucks off of east blvd thats in a house, down the greenway to target to get a few things and to enjoy the beautiful day. on the baby food isle where we were exploring all the different things there i asked a mom with 2 little ones for some baby food/eating advice. WOW! so much peace came over me. she explained very clearly and simply that a baby does not eat food for calories until 12months. until then its all about experiencing food and discovering it. kiah has not been liking any of the food i have given her and i had been getting worried that she was hungry. but after she said that i was freed from that worry and excited to go home and just let her try things like a slice of apple to gnaw on or a banana to play with instead or working so hard on trying to make perfect little meals for her. it was just so nice. we left target after having like 20 people say how beautiful kiah was and headed back to the starbucks. we came home, had a lovely loaf of bread with soup all together at the table. then, before i knew it, it was time for friday soccer in birchcroft. it was just a great afternoon. i went out to get tina from her new home and brought her over to the neighborhood. then she joined me and kiah for a long walk before the sun set. stephen and i took her home after soccer finished and then to top off the night we used a coupon for a free sandwich at one of our favorite places which-wich. i got the Monti Cristo and he got the THank You Turkey. yummmm!  

----a heads up---

a random mom with a 4 month old came up to meet and told me about something fun to do with kiah and my mom friends and their kids...
every TUESDAY 11:00 @ potterybarnkids there is a story time. and apparently every time u go u get a little stamp and after getting so many you get $10 to spend there.

7th day of Christmas

7. It said for us to get hot tasty drinks from Starbucks tonight on Pecan St and then walk around the neighborhoods looking at lights!

I'm very excited about this one! Today is Friday which means FAMILY FRIDAY! We have been doing this special tradition every week for the last month or more and it's so needed in our life!

so right now, i shall start off with some quiet time in bed before little bug-a-boo wakes up again. stephen and i have gotten into a new routine and so far it is really really good for us. we actually get up out of bed every morning at 6:00am-on purpose. kiah routinely wakes up to eat around 5:30am or 6:00am every morning because she goes to bed around 7:00pm every night. we can't keep her up past then most nights no matter how hard we try. so she needs to eat pretty early. but then thankfully she will go back to sleep for maybe 2 more hours. so, stephen and i realized that is we actually get up then we will be able to do things that we need to do and we are able to start the day feeling productive instead of dragging ourselves out of bed to the alarm of the crying baby. ITS BEEN REALLY WONDERFUL.   so today should be really good. stephen is already out the door on his way to play soccer with the guys. i'm writing. and drinking coffee in my PJs. 

what shall me and kiah do when she wakes up? first i will need to try and give her some cereal. then get her dressed and i think this morning we should go for a long walk. i'm too sore from the gym to go back again today. i need to finish the rest of my homemade Christmas presents.

1:00 stephen and i are going to see our friend elise who hooks us up with free hair cuts and color so this time we are going to leave kiah with my BFF faith. i really hope she is good. and then experiment more with a rosemary soft pretzel recipe that i messed up on yesterday bc i was trying to rush through it while kiah napped. the dough did NOT rise. i hate when that happens.

 don't they look amazing?!?!

here is the recipe

On the 6th day of Christmas

6. Bake a cake for Jesus.

so i made a pumpkin pound cake

here is the recipe

on the 4th day of CHRISTMAS

4. create a perfect holiday pandora playlist
      so far the best tunes come from the indie holidays radio but i have to have some NSYNC and mariah carey in there somewhere too!
i'm learning that kiah just loves to be out and about. on the days that i get up, go to the gym, walk around the mall, and do my normal life things>she is totally content. she sleeps better and loves GOING. like today! it been an awesome  awesome day!  on the days i try to stay at home and make a routine and focus on HER> she doesn't do well. yesterday the poor little doll face had to go in for her 6 month check up and get 3 shots. thankfully stephen came with me because it is soooooooo hard to watch her innocently laugh and play and roll around on the table where she will very quickly be surprised with stings of shots on her legs. she was very very brave yesterday though. the pediatrician said she needs to gain more weight though. from the last check up she had not gained even a pound so i am now focusing more on getting these solid foods in her and feeding her well. she's just a tiny little bug-a-boo. 
this week she is eating cereal in the morning and avocado in the afternoon. i also got her her FIRST SIPPY CUP yesterday because she needs to start drinking water now too. I've been using our BABY BULLET to grind up oats and make her super baby porridge from the The SUper Baby Food Book. i like it a lot. she doesn't really love the new food yet but we are getting there. i do not see why people WANT to rush the food eating process because it really is a lot more work than just sitting down and giving her my milk. more dirty clothes, more things to wash and sanitize. all of that to say, it is fun. she is fun. she is such a happy baby. 

on the third day of CHRISTMAS

3. eat waffles with hot chocolate for dinner

on the first day of CHISTmas...

1. kiss under the mistletoe 

Get Ready...december count down

2012 Christmas Count Down begins tomorrow. i just finished our first annual 25 days of things to do in december advent calendar. 

i kinda just made this up myself with a combo of ideas from the infamous PINTREST. stephen and i came up with 25 things to do this winter as a new family starting our own traditions. so i decided to make it even more fun by turning it into an advent calendar where we open the little baggie every day and see what it tells us to do! kiah makes me wanna be crafty. i bought my very own hot glue gun too! oh the possiblities. i plan on getting some help from my BFF jessica jones on some stockings for kiah, stephen and i out of an old sweater!
    having kiah has justified my desires to decorate and start traditions. before, when it was just stephen and i, i always wanted to do things like buy a pumpkin or buy a tree or decorate for holidays but since he could care less about it i just didn't do it. but NOW...things are different. this is the beginning of a beautiful thing. we have to start off right. gosh, I LOVE TRADITIONS! 
    the other thing that we have decided to do as far as the gift giving stuff is the, "something you want, something you need, something you wear, and something you read." 
for me-
want: some type of good work out clothes
need:
wear :maybe TOMS, or sunglasses or a new scarf
read: subscription to REAL SIMPLE
for kiah-
want:
need: a warm hat
wear:
read:
for stephen-
want:
need: luggage for thailand
wear:cleats and indoor shoes for his trip to thailand
read: i'm sure this won't be too hard, he loves getting new books

if anyone has any gread ideas, i sure could use them because i'm not getting very far with this list.

1st THANKSGIVING

        i always look forward to "FIRSTs" ;you only get a first time once! EVERYTHING!!! FROM KIAHS FIRST CAR RIDE, to her first giggle, to the first bottle, the first tear, the first taste of cereal, her first time on an airplane, her first bath= so this year we are enjoying and celebrating EVERYTHING! every month we celebrate and this month is a big milestone.    6 Months OLD. i remember thinking about when she would be 6 months old way back when she was only a few months old and feeling like 6 months would take forever but here it is before our very eyes.

..........the funny things that kiah does these days are roll around the floor all over the place, suck on everything, she kind of growls and smiles and it is sooooo cute, she hates getting her diaper changed in the middle of the night so we don't do that anymore, she almost jumps herself out of her little activity bouncy center, she laughs at PEEK-A-BOO, she is SO curious, she goes to anyone who wants to hold her, she loves listening to stories, she loves the bath, she has a bit of a temper..-thats just a few things that i don't want to forget 

       thank God i have been able to simply breastfeed kiah through this whole time and she has been growing beautifully. feeding her other things is going to take some extra work. she has been sleeping through the night since Nov. 12. this has made a huge difference in our lives. i believed in my heart that she would get it before or around her 6 month point and sure enough she did. it just clicked for her and i am so glad i did not have to have excruciating nights of letting her cry it out...which i was prepared to do by her 6 month birthday. thank you God!

       this has been an amazing thanksgiving family vacation with Stephen's family down here in sunny florida. on thanksgiving day stephen, his dad and i ran the 10k turkey trot in the morning and then in the afternoon we boiled and mashed some carrots for kiah to try for the first time. she was a great sport about it but defiantly didn't love 'em. its gonna be fun introducing her to more foods now and entering into THIS NEW SEASON! a new season of being able to be away from kiah for longer periods, a new season of CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS that we start as a family, a new season of teeth and crawling and changing and growing. wow! its so good!

kiah. im soaking you up.

oh kiah lily 

ok we have officially decided that kiah cant grow up any more. she is at this age that we just love so much and she is rolling onto her tummy almost every time i lay her on the ground. this makes me excited but sad. if she is rolling on her tummy now then next will be crawling soon and then before i know it walking and talking and before our very eyes she will be going off to college ready to start her own journey, ahahhahhaaa! so, i haven't read any self help mommy books or studied from great baby whisperers but i have decided that its better for kiah, stephen and i to continue this way, trusting holy spirit to be my helper and trusting my heart to lead me. otherwise i am just too overwhelmed by what everyone else has to say about things. i mean, of course i am asking for advice when i need advice. but mothers in africa don't have books telling them when to do what. for example, right now i am soaking up every time kiah sleeps in my arms extra long. i see the light at the end of the tunnel and i am pretty positive i wont regret spending more quality time close to my baby girl instead of cleaning the house or doing other things. she is just so amazing.

fall

summer

lots of babysitters here in the neighborhood

pumpkin muffins.

on the days that i don't get go to my "super important as if i have an appointment" athletic conditioning class at the YMCA Mon-FRI 9:45-10:45 i usually have no idea what to do. its so weird because i have more than enough to do but don't do much. i love my friend caroline who tells me, "oh yeah" you are just keeping another human being alive thats all. i mean if i had a day to do all the things that i think about doing-wow, that would be a good day. but today was VERY VERY VERY close

woke up around 6:45am to feed kiah and put her back to the land of nod. i was sneezing like crazy and my nose was running so i decided not to try to go to the gym and to just take a nice hot shower while stephen was still home so i didn't have to worry about the little princess. so fist things first...down stirs i go to make coffee. i took my cup of coffee into the shower with me, sit down in the tub and drink it. why haven't i done this more often? i have no idea!!! our tub doesn't stop up for me to ever take a nice bath so this was VERY VERY VERY close. ahhh, decided...i'm not going to look cute today. i am going to go for a comfortable athletic mom on the go look. i like that look.
then i whipped up some yummy pumpkin muffins for breakfast, played with the little sweetie, said tata to stephen, vacuumed the upstairs and down stairs, gathered all of our dirty laundry and loaded kiah up in the car to drop it at our friends house who (YES) blesses us by doing our laundry.
kiah just looked so cute today with the little leg warmers on that jessica jones made her. before i knew it it was almost 2 and i needed something to eat. i was meeting jessica and anna jubilee down by the green way so i made an executive decision about how to feed my belly and it was a good one!!! i had exactly 6 dollar bills in my wallet so i decided that it had been such a great day already why not try out the new which wich place near the greenway with kiah. wow!!! my new favorite place. for just like $5 and some change i got a loaded veggie sub sandwich with a black patty and tons of veggies. it was a really fun place! i highly recommend it!
   then to top it off jess and i took our little daughters for a stroll in the sun on the greenway!

4 months gone by already

dear kiah lily, how u make me laugh and how u make me cry. i love you. u are so amazing.
you are officially 4 months old. i have been a mommy for 4 months...16 weeks. it has felt like a lifetime but still new all at the same time. you are sleeping in you crib so well now for naps but i think tonight i might introduce a taste of rice cereal to see if you will let me sleep all night long.

i took you to the pediatrician this morning and it was so sad. they gave u 2 shots and you cried so hard you face almost turned purple. its good that you daddy isn't there when this happens because he would probably cry too.
 kiah lily jackson you are 13.5 lbs and 25 in long now
you have been doing some amazing things lately.

1. last weekend when morgan came down from Pittsburg to visit you slept all night long! until 6:30 am! it was amazing!
2. yesterday morning after the 3-5 wake ups through the night i woke up to a bright sunny room at grammy and papas house in VA wondering what time it was because i could tell it had to have been late. i was like, IS KIAH STILL SLEEPING? nope, u were ever so cutely and contently playing with yourself in the pack and play below my bed. i was so happy that you let me wake up on my own!
3. then yesterday afternoon, you just put yourself to sleep again at nap time. all of this told me that you were inevitably growing up
4. you are holding you head up really well
5. might be teething
6. love it when kailer jumps up and down like a frog in front of you
7. you are great about taking a bottle
8. you laugh sooooo much, play so much and are so great about being passed around most of the time
9. you are sucking on everything! you gave me a serious hickey the other day

there have also been a few words given to you already too
"a preacher and teacher of the WORD"
"a worshiper"
"strong"
"alert"
"content"

you always fold you hands like you are praying

waller wedding

all the eagle girls

all the eagle boys

wow, what an incredible weekend this was! do u all remember this?!?!?!
can corbin and sarah get married every weekend please!

sleep.zzzzz

sometimes, i just want kiah to sleep all day long. #1 because she looks like the most adorable little angel when she sleeps. #2 because i want to get things done.
    my last 12 hours have been hilarious to say the least
as i said bye to stephen while he literally crammed into Juan Guzmans tiny mini cooper with Ul and the other Juan and all their bags for the big wedding weekend and some golf clubs i embraced the night with my sweet baby girl. i rocked her to sleep as i regretfully ate a big piece of chocolate cake with a big glass of milk. i knew i shouldn't have done that. she has not been sleeping so great in her crib. she was up every 2 hours, 12:00  2:00, 4:00 6:00 and then i go down stairs to turn the air on because it gets crazy hot in this apt i had to kill a giant cockroach. ewww.
up the squeaky stairs to try to get some more sleep.
         KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK on the door
normally, when kids miss the bus stephen will get outta bed and take them to school
   well, stephens not here
so i get outta bed again and go to the door and tell kiran that i can not take him to school
then i go back upstairs to bed
then again about 1 hour later
      KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCk on the door
mandalyna, sorry no i can not take u to school
   at this point, whenever i am trying to sleep i get woken up so i figure i will just get up, make coffee and start this day

weddings.mountains.crib

oh my goodness, is it already september?
   i feel like thanksgiving is gonna be here so soon, then christmas and then kiah will be 1 year old walking and talking and ....ok i need to slow down.
   on kiahs 3 month birthday we put her in her crib to sleep IN THE OTHER ROOM for the first time. i actually was totally ok with it because she has just grown right out of the bassinet that once seemed plenty big for her now is too little.
  LOL! sorry to get off track but i literally just laughed out loud. i am sitting in kiahs room on this rainy thursday morning while a Burmese bible study is taking place downstairs and kiah sleeps in her crib. i think she is having a bad dream but it is so hilarious because she just yelled out while she was sleeping REALLY LOUD but when right back to sleep. sorry, but i love it.
   anyways, but back to kiah in her crib. i love it because stephen and i can actually stop tip toeing around our bedroom at night and moving on or off the bed in slow motion to keep it from sqeeking. and we can listen to our little princess on the baby monitor. but before we could make it a routine, we took off to Asheville,nc for dinner at my favorite TUPELO HONEY and Liz and Caleb's wedding, then late that night to grandfather mountain with friends for labor day weekend. it was a perfectly planned out weekend right? well, it was different. different compared to life back before kiah.
before kiah lily, it was just stephen and i. at weddings, we socialized, danced to slow songs, reminisced about our wedding, ate fun food, danced with friends.  life is very different with little kiah. we stood in the back to keep kiah quiet during the ceremony instead of with our friends who we hadn't seen in a long time. during the cocktail hour before the reception i hid away in a back bathroom to feed kiah while everyone else mingled and caught up on life and took fun pictures together. stephen and i barely ate, barely danced, barely finished conversations with friends and mostly took care of kiah. honestly, as we left i was really sad. i had been looking forward to this wedding and seeing friends for so long. i had a pity party for about 15 minutes and then decided...while all of my heart
...she is more than worth it.
becoming a mom, u sacrifice lots of things. i realized i love her so much!!! she is and will always be worth anything i might not be able to do or have or enjoy. i love her just because she is mine and i am hers. i also realize, that is how it is with God. kiah doesn't even talk or tell me how great i am or doing things for me. but i love her just because she is mine. "i am my beloveds and he is mine"
   GOD IS LOVE
i am so thankful for stephen and all the help he gives me. i am thankful for the long runs i have been able to go on. i am thankful that my friend faith has moved just down the street from me. i am thankful that my friend morgan is coming to visit me and kiah in a few weekends. i am thankful for all the people who have provided so many things that we have needed for kiah. i am thankful for the kids in the neighborhood being understanding about how much time and energy it takes to take care of a baby.

we have a lot going on these days. tomorrow, we head to high point, nc for corbin and sarahs wedding!!!! we will be there all weekend and then monday we will have our first GIRLS NIGHT starting back up again. then i am having a baby shower for one of our friends in the neighborhood who is having a baby boy any day now. so exciting! along with my other beautiful friend JESSICA JONES who is having her baby girl any day now!!! i am so ready to see and hold a newborn again!

love her

3 MONTHS OLD she was not in it

bye bye newborn clothes
    hello 3-6 month
these past 3 months have gone by so fast. in some ways it has just been a wild blur. in other ways i look back at the best 3 months of my life. at times it has defiantly been hard. when kiah is crying and we don't know why and stephen is trying to tell me something and we are yelling because we can't hear each other and stephen rushes to eat spaghetti so that my plate wont get cold and i can't eat until he is finished because kiah is crying and the next thing we know its 10:00 at night when we even get to eat and then my sweet Stephen's plate of spaghetti slides where...? into kiahs car seat. don't worry she was not in it. 
kind of like when we were in LONDON and we had the stroller with all of our wallets and passports in it and we were trying to get off the tube quickly. well, i managed to push the stroller off onto the platform but then in a blink of an eye the doors slammed shut. i had to jump back and let go of the stroller or else i would have gotten my arms chopped off. there we were watching our stroller go away as the tube took us to the next station. again, don't worry she was not in it. luckily, THANK GOD, there was a nice older couple who watched the whole thing happen and stayed with our stroller until we could hop off the tube going one way and then across and over to the tube going back the other way where we had come.

Kiah has grown from here.....


     

to here!

Love.

What I love about kiah rIght now... I love her milk breath Her little fingers that grab my shirt or her blanket Her liPs The noises she makes when she sleeps Her eyes that look right into mine How she is a gift to share with family Her eye lashes When she snOrts When she breathes When she jumPs at loud noises and throws her legs and arms in the air How she travels so peacefully Her wild hair She glows with beauty Her cough when she drinks too fast

1 MONTH

Kiah was 1 MONTH YESTERDAY and i can not even believe how much she is growing and changing. she and i had the best most peaceful day ever. stephen was out to soccer practice with some of the birchcroft boys early so i was able to have mommy time with her. she usually has a window of time in the mornings when she knows its time to get up and out of her bassinet but still wants to snooze around. so most of the time, if he has the time, she will get into bed with stephen for a good hour or two and lay belly to belly. SHE LOVES IT. WE LOVE IT. THERE IS NOTHING MORE WONDERFUL. yesterday, I GOT IT. it just so special to hear her breath, watch her sleep, feel her arms along your sides, watch her lips. ahhh. then it was time for a bath after all the traveling we had been doing. then i cuddled her up. fed her. and put her in the car to go on our FIRST GROCERY SHOPPING TRIP. we went to target worshipping JESUS in the car, i parked on the upper level so i wouldn't be self conscious if she resisted getting into my new ERGO CARRIER from the car seat. she did great. right in, and right into a peaceful sleep. i also wore my new traveling hat the i picked up at an urban outfitters in atlanta for $10. i was on an adventure with kiah. i walked around with my free hands picking up a few things so that we will survive until we leave on wednesday. so many people comment about how beautiful she is. i really want to hear from the Lord as to what i can say back to them to let them know its because her creator has beautiful hands....well, maybe i got it. that just came to me. i think i could say that. so she was just so so so great and peaceful. i did all the shopping. came home to kids who helped me bring in all the groceries. made stephen lunch. got a shower. took her to the hip doctor. he said he could already tell the harness is doing its job. and the net time we see him will be when we get back from england and it will already be 4 weeks. Jesus is making the time go by so fast. then we went to our friends house for dinner and kiah took a nap through dinner so we could eat with our friends. she is a great girl. a great daughter.

grammy.papa.

stephen and i have been in stuart, va visiting kiahs grammy and papa. it has been a great get-a-way after such a long week of doctor stuff, the fire, the youth tour and all that comes with birchcroft life in general. we have had lots of hands holding and passing kiah lily which gave me a BIG BREAK. we got here saturday night and have been hanging out until today- tuesday. i swam in the pool and laid in the sun and made homemade ice-cream. life is so slow here. slow and quiet. kiah is almost a month old and every single day i am amazed at how amazing she really is. yesterday she slept on papa for 5 hours after our long hike at fairy stone park. it is such a gift to have a daughter to share with everyone. my brother eric and his son kailer had some quality time with kiah too. my grammy held her and kiah gave her lots of smiles! stephen and i have taken time together to plan out out big trip to ENGLAND next week and to finalize our tickets, get kiah a passport  in atlanta, and to get all our last doctors appointment's rescheduled before we go. this was kiah's first road trip and next week will be a big step up from this 2 hour car ride.

TO DO:

1. buy starbucks instant coffee packets to make it in the tea drinking culture
2. paint my nails of course
3. figure out how to pack for kaih to be ok overseas for 2 weeks
4. wednesday 11:00 appointment in atlanta, ga for kiahs passport
5. thursday 2:00 appointment with the hip doctors for kiahs 1 week check in charlotte, nc
6. friday 8:45 pediatrician 1 month check up,     11:00 OBGYN appointment for me,       afternoon haircuts for stephen and i with our friend elise 
7. sunday july 1st- jenna hood meets kiah!
8. monday & tuesday- urban eagles summer camp for boy's
9. wednesday- ENGLAND--- until july 18th

friday.whoot.

stephen's off playing in an eagles scrimmage. so what shall my evening with kiah look like?
let's replay the day.
where to start?
4:30 am walked down stairs to load the coffee maker. is it bad that i am usually ready for my morning coffee by the time i go to bed at night?
went back to sleep.
officially got up at 7:30 and turned the coffee on. kiah was still snoozing so i got a shower.
had a visitor who brought me FLOWERS! i love fresh flowers.
cleaned up the apartment while i had free hands and packed for virginia. we are going to visit my family tomorrow.
met the man who works for BEDS FOR KIDS who brought furniture for the families who lost everything in the fire.
ate cereal with blueberries.
laundry.
went with stephen and kiah to get her birth cirtificate. then drove to the airport to pick up a girl from delaware who is going to brazil on the youth tour and took her to the hotel where everyone is staying. i got to see some girls who went last year with us and played sock wars in the parking lot.
shared a luna bar with stephen. -so hungry- came home and fed kiah.
made a quick and regretful cheese sandwich and now i am typing wishing i hadn't resorted to that. still hungry. missing our delivered dinners!!!
i like time alone with my sweet kiah lily.

hard. harness.

this morning we woke up to such a sunny day. happiness was in the air.
stephen and i just prayed in the yellow room with kiah and then took her dancing.

i have to video tape stephen and i dancing to this with her sometime. it was the best moment of my life!!!
 today was also the day that we were gong to the doctors to find out if kiah would be in a harness for 6 weeks or not to fix her hips. faith filled our hearts and brought us the a place of such belief that Jesus would heal her and we would witness a great miracle to tell everyone about the powerful healing. we were singing and worshipping in the doctors office. i think we were honestly HUNGRY TO SEE GOD IN THIS WAY. we are hungry to see healing the way we KNOW God does heal. we know the goodness and kindness and greatness of Jesus. he is and always will be, even in the midst of our feelings that try to tell us he failed us or that we failed. his love never fails.   the ultra sound showed us that there was still a dislocation after taking this past week to pray over her. this was hard news to hear. wow we cried. i cried. my mothers heart hurt so bad. i just wanted to tell kiah, i'm sorry i'm sorry. but the hardest thing was probably more just that we were so ready to praise Jesus for the miracle and to be able to tell all the doctors about Him and to tell everyone praying for kiah how Jesus is alive and heals miraculously. i have been thirsty for a refreshment in the holy spirit like this. i had thought to mself. we need this. urban eagles needs this. our families need this. our friends need this. something to spark us to push closer to him. but, in that moment, i thought to myself, well. i guess we have to tell everyone that He didn't do it.
i know that was not the right response. i knew we were still going to put our trust in Jesus and praise him like never before and continue honoring Him. in that moment i was upset. but then, we left the doctors office after taking time to collect myself and having learned how to put the harness on and everything. we were NOT ready to go back to birchcroft just yet. we went to one of our secret hide out houses- where the famly has given us a key to. we got there and just wanted to be alone but the house keeper was there. we figured we should still stay there and just tell her what was going on. THIS WAS AMAZING! the house keeper is a holy spirit filled hispanic woman of God who we love so much. she does our laundry quite often actually. she's wonderful. so we walk in and OOOHH MANNN!!! the rivers of heaven overflowed on us. she grabbed our hands and prayed in spanish with all her heart and soul. we were just weeping there in the door way and kiah slept in the car seat in peace below us. the housekeeper prayed for PEACE PEACE PEACE. then she reminded us of so much truth. God used her to destroy all the wandering thoughts i was having and totally fixed my eyes back into the eyes of our precious savior Jesus Christ. wow. peace like never before came over kiah.
seriously she was in a supernatural sleep. i had to wake her up at like 7:30 that night. she had slept from 1:30-7:30. wow. just wow. and she slept great all through the night too!
Jesus is faithful. and when we don't understand we will praise Him.

u are good God    u are good to me

busy.

life has been busy. a blur almost. kiah keeps me on call 24-7 and i am learning things about her all the time. for example, just about 10 seconds ago i laid her down in the bassinet wide awake and crying just so i could step away and go to the bathroom. surprise surprise, i come back and she is quiet an happy!!! laying her there + stepping away= a totally content baby chillin. wow, i wish i had tried this sooner. little did i know, she just didn't want to be held. i guess kiah needs alone time just as much as me. i think she is a lot more like me than i can imagine. i realized this morning when she was crying, while i was ready to get out of the apartment and go to abby's birthday brunch, that kiah was JUST AS READY to get out too. she wasn't crying because she didn't want to go. i believe she was crying because she was just as ready to get out as i was.
she was quiet as soon as stephen and i stepped outside and got into the car.
    stephen is amazing. he wins the best father in the world award.
there have been lots of fun things going on lately and having a baby makes it so difficult to actually go out and be with other people out in public. so many things run through your mind. what if she is hungry, can i nurse her in what i am wearing, what is she cries and i can not sooth her, if i wake her up to go in the car seat will she ever go back to sleep, if i feed her before i go will it put her to sleep or energize her up...and so on and so forth. without stephen and his confidence as a dad, i would be a wreck. he has helped me in the night times, helped me in the day times, helped me in the quite times and helped me in the loud times, helped me in the hungry times and and helped me in the tired times. he is just amazing.
he wanted me to be able to go to abby's birthday dinner on thursday at kickstand but i was nervous to try and take kiah out to a party. he convinced me it would be great and that he would be there to help me. we went and it was all great. a lot of friends were able to see kiah and i for the first time since having her so that was fun. i was able to finally be out and around people again. then, when we all screamed surprise to abby kiah woke up and stephen took her outside to rock her while i was able to spend a little bit of time with my friends again. i was able to get some quality time in, while it actually felt like a date with stephen because we were actually dressed up out somewhere together. i got a burger and fries to-go and stephen got tacos-to-go from loco lime next door and we went home. now-a-days eating dinner is much more complicated. we keep finding ourselves in situations like, when the food is actually hot and ready kiah needs to be fed so then i will go feed her up stairs and stephen will bring the plates of food up to where i am, and then i will make him eat without me because you never know how long its gonna take her to eat and be burped and hopefully put to sleep. then by the time i finish with her, i hand her to him and then i try to reheat my food and eat as fast as i can before something else happens. THANK YOU GOD FOR ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BROUGHT US MEALS!!! we would be eating cereal every night if it weren't for people bringing dinner to us.
      we are defiantly getting a hang on it all though.
so this morning, after i fed her at 5:30 and got her back in bed by 6, i went and made a pot of coffee, got a shower and had QUITE TIME. i love those times in the morning. then rode with stephen and kiah to the TERRACE CAFE- my new favorite breakfast place- i was able to have brunch with the girls while stephen took kiah out. it was so nice of him!!!
see, he is just the best
charlotte eagles game tonight; i think...

mother-in law to the rescue

this weekend, Stephen's mom, dad and grandmother drove up from FLORIDA to visit and it has been such a great break. yesterday, stephen and i camped out over at the house they are all staying at and watched soccer all afternoon. kiah was amazing. no fussing or uncontrollable crying. just peaceful. i was able to sit out in the sun for the first time on 13 days and really relax. i even fell asleep on the couch while stephens mom held little kiah lily. we are defiantly getting a handle on all this slowly but surely. i can not imagine doing it without Jesus or Stephen. then for dinner we picked up boston market food and sat outside on a patio. it has been so good for us to get out of birchcroft for such long periods of time, especially now since the kids are officially out of school. then this morning, stephen and i woke up and packed our baby in her car seat again to grab some coffee and muffins and head to the greenway for a sunday morning stroll. the weather has been perfect today.  little overcast, breezy and cool. happy. so happy. so thankful to have such a great family on my side and stephens. having my mom visit a few days ago and now having them here has really made me thankful for our awesome family. like i said, i have not had this much free time without the little one in my arms in 13 day. yesterday and today my routine is pretty much every 2-3 hours i feed her for about 15 minutes and then hand her off to auntie(i think this is going to be her grandmother name) pops (Stephen's dads grandfather name) or bebe- Stephen's grandmother. i have been able to eat! they head home tomorrow so i am taking advantage of it all while i can.

abba. daddy time

kiah LOVES daddy time everyday

and so does stephen!

first pediatricians appointment

7lbs .5oz gaining good weight, looking gorgeous 

labor.

this week i did something that i never want to forget about. it was THE MOST amazing, incredible thing i have ever done in my entire life. in my own opinion, labor is not easy or fun. labor is a marathon that goes uphill until the very last stretch. i remember sunday as such an incredible day. stephen and i went to church and praised jesus with tears flowing. a guest speaker was there and really encouraged us in sacrifice. sacrifice has and will continue to be a thread in our relationship and in our life. we had planned out a really nice day together. came home and ate lunch after church, went to the gym to work out a little, and then went on a shopping adventure at the mall with a $50 that stephen's grandpa had mailed us. we mostly just wanted to do a good amount of walking to get me going into labor. that whole day i had felt a few contraction type things but nothing bad at all. by the time we got home i was feeling them just a bit stronger and more often. we made homemade pizzas/calzones for dinner and continued to monitor the contractions. we knew it was coming. that night i went ahead and called my midwife and told her what i had been feeling that day and night. she said i was in the early stage of labor and the best thing i could try to do was to sleep as much as i could through the night and keep timing the contractions. we KNEW we would be going to the hospital the next day! stephen went ahead and packed the car that night. by about 4:30 am i was clocking them coming every 5 minutes. by 5:30 am we got up and showered and kept counting. we called my midwife again and said it was time to come in. WOW! we had no idea what we were getting into. those contractions were NOTHING! at that point, i had no idea what pain was. i couldn't eat. stephen made me a smoothie but i couldn't really drink it. around 8:30 we left birchcroft and headed to the hospital. i called my parents, he called his and mass text messages were flying all over the city sharing that we were finally going to the hospital. we were so excited! laughing our heads off all morning!!! we pulled up, stephen dropped me off, i was wheel chaired inside and up to the 8th floor, while stephen parked the car and brought in our bags. we were put in a suite and GOD blessed us with the perfect nurse and midwife. it was mostly all waiting around until like 10am. i was like 4 cm when the first checked me. we walked and walked around and contractions got more and more intense. then they checked me like 2 hours later and i was like 7-8 cm. i got to have a cherry popsicle around 1:00 pm.

 my parent showed up at the hospital so fast. they had to of been driving like 100 mph from VA.

it was getting hard. i had to stop and take very deep breaths to handle the contractions as we walked around the hallways to get things going. around 2 or 3 that afternoon, THEY BROKE MY WATER. it was kinda cool.
        THEN REAL LABOR BEGAN!!!

by that time i was not talking to anyone, barely had my eyes open as i tried a few ways to continue speeding up the process. went into a warm shower, DEEP BREATHS, birthing ball, DEEP BREATHS, laying on different sides on the bed, deep breaths, leaning over on stephen, DEEP BREATHS. i was completely focused on taking long deep breaths. time was flying by to me. finally, i started to feel that certain pressure that they had been telling me about. i pressure that feels just like you have to have a bowel movement. by that point i had thought to myself so many things.

1. why didn't i get an epidural
2. how in the world do women do this more than once in their lifetime
3. i'm so mad! i have to go through with this and there is no stopping it or going back

than PUSHING CAME! i loved pushing so much! it was finally a way for me to get back at the pain my body had been enduring for the last few hours. i pushed for about 45 minutes and then, with a gigantic door size mirror infront of me, i saw her head com farther and farther out with every push until i knew my next push would do it. i pushed and she flew out! it was the most amazing feeling in the entire world!

happy.

horray for...

1. fitting back into my old shorts this morning
2. coffee oh coffee
3. kiah loving getting her hair washed under the sink
4. a husband who makes sure i take time to eat
5. first pediatricians visit -we passed with flying colors
6. stephen treating me to smoothie king after the pediatricians appointment to celebrate all the great things the nurse told us about how she was doing 
7. kiah gaining back her birth weight in only a few days . mon-7.2 lbs wed-6.11 lbs fri-7.05 lbs
8. good milk coming in
9. having friends bring us delicious meals and visiting to love on kiah with us
10. weeping together with stephen in this new flood of love that comes like the rain, POURIN'
11. and this song!

she has arrived

birthing ball and popsicle by the afternoon

seconds out of my belly

exhausted and happy

first bath

daddys girl for sure

papa

the ride home

after stephen and i gave her her fist bath at home

3 days old