My Baby Girl

Have I ever told you the story about how my daughter came to be about?  Grab a cup of coffee or tea and pull up a chair. 

I have been blessed to be given her as a daughter.  She has taught me some things about myself.  But most importantly, she is my first born and my precious little girl.

My husband and I got married in 1998 because I was pregnant.  I was about 5 weeks pregnant.  The weekend after we got married we were able to take a little honeymoon to Ocean Shores.  It was there that I started spotting.  I had a feeling in the pit of my gut what was wrong. 

I don't want to tell that story though. 

After my miscarriage, we waited the three months to try again.  But God had different plans for us.  I sometimes wonder if that first pregnancy was just to get us in gear to get married.  We were living in sin. 

I didn't get pregnant until about five years later.  That was a tough five years!  I wanted to have a baby.  When I finally gave up, I told myself, "God has decided that you aren't to raise children, so just get used to the idea and get over it."  (Yea, I know, I have no idea about what God decides, but it sounded good at the time.) 

You can probably guess what happened after that.  BAM!  I was preggers. 

Five months into my pregnancy, I can feel that baby moving all of the time.  She hardly stopped.  It was crazy!  I used to call her my little ballerina and my tiny dancer because it felt like she was dancing on my uterus.  And it just kept going and going!

When I was in my third trimester, we were able to sit up at night and watch her just roll and roll and roll and roll and roll and roll (I think you get the point) in my stomach.  Literally, roll.  Not just kick or punch.  Roll.  She was an acrobatic in-utero baby! 

Then she was born.  That day my heart knew what it felt like to melt.  It took me years to just believe that this was really happening to me.  I thought all of the time, this has to be a dream.  Something this miraculous and sweet couldn't be happening to me.  She was my life.

Because of difficulties when she was born, she had to be in the ICU for babies inside one of those things.  I can't for the life of me think of what they are called now.  They wouldn't let me hold her as much as I wanted so she could stay at the right temperature.  I treasured my nursing times with her so I could marvel at the wrinkly face and puggy nose looking at me. 

She ended up having to stay one more night at the hospital than I did.  Because I was nursing, and not going to leave her there anyways not matter what they did to me, they let me stay in a little room for new parents whose babies had to stay longer.  It was no bigger than a closet, but she didn't know.  I remember trying to wrap her in a blanket, swaddling her lovingly.  Only for her to push and shove her way out of it in seconds. 

In a way it was comical.  I showed Greg.  "Watch, I'll wrap her up and she'll get out of it."  I wondered how I would keep her warm.  I still do!  She still won't stay covered up and the less clothes she has on, the better.

There has not been another moment in my life like that.  She stole my heart from the very beginning.  I love my son, and he is my cuddle-bug and my baby.  But nothing can take the place of your first born.

Baptized!

My little girl, my Stinky, is now baptized.  She took her public declaration in front of our church family this evening. 

I am so proud of her. 

After she had dried and changed clothes, we returned to the sanctuary where my little girl was voted into the church as a member.  My Stinky is now a member of _____ Community Baptist Church.

I am so proud of her.

I walked her up to the tub to get baptized and video taped the whole thing.  I bought her her very own King James Version Bible as a gift.  She loved it!

After she had become a member, a friend at church invited her and her family over for dinner.  What a joy that is to us!  This is just so exciting for me, but I'm trying to keep myself contained.  Inside my soul is rejoicing!  It is wonderful!

Now we just need to get my baby boy baptized when he's old enough to understand and decide on his own.  

I pray that my children never stray from His side.  I would love it if you prayed with me for my children.  Thanks!

Bloggerview #1 - Phreckle Face Photography

Welcome to our first Bloggerview!!  Today my guest is Casey at Phreckle Face Photography!  You can check out her blog here and her Facebook page here!  


1. Tell us a little about yourself.

{10 Phreckly Facts about the owner and creator of Phreckle Face Photography}

1) I LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL MY HEART!!
2) I have been married to the LOVE OF MY LIFE for almost 10 years!! This JUNE will mark our BIG 10 anniversary!!
3) We have two Phreckle Face cuties of our own that keep us hopping! They are the inspiration behind Phreckle Face Photography!!!
4) I am a PNW girl at heart!! Always have; Always will be!!!! No matter where the BIG BAD ARMY may take us; the PNW will always be our home!
5) I LOVE COLOR!!!! My fav colors are apple green and obergene
6) I am currently living in San Antonio, Texas. Learning to love the heat!
7) I lived all across the globe. One of my favorite places was our time spent living in Okinawa, Japan.
8) The vast majority of art work in my home is photo art work!!
9) I LOVE..Let's say that again..I LOVE CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!
10) One day when we settle down and are no longer moving around; I would love to make a wallpaper photo wall; inspired by Jinky Art!

2. What is the main purpose of your blog?

Today, the main purpose of my blog would be to share my recent work as well as network with other photographers and vendors that love photography as much as I do. I also like to use it to keep a running record of our adventures across the globe!

3. When you started your blog, what was your ideal goal for it?

I started my Phreckle Face blog to share everything I love about photography! The fabulous thing about the web is the ability to network and share your creativity!!

4. What would your ideal day consist of?

Now and days my ideal day would consist of sleeping in!!!! With two munchkins in school we rarely get to sleep past 6AM!!

5. What blogs do you read that inspire you?

Some of my FAVORITE BLOGS are:

1) http://jinkyart.com.au/blog/
2) http://styleberryblog.com/
3) http://pinkletoesblogstalker.com/


6. Can you give us a little example of some of your work?

Thank you so much Casey!  I loved doing this and learning more about you!  Isn't her work just beautiful?  She has such an artistic touch to her photography, it amazes me!  God definitely gave her a talent!

Would you like to participate in Bloggerview?  I would love to interview more blogs out there!  If so, send me your email address, or leave it in the comments below! 

Please be sure everyone to leave a nice comment for Casey too!!

Getting Ready for Baptisms & Birthdays

My daughter, my Stinky, is getting baptized this Sunday night.  I am so proud of her decision!  This is the biggest decision of her life and she made the right choice.  She had already accepted Jesus as her Savior when she was 5 years old.  So we are preparing for that special evening.

I bought her a new Bible.  A grown-up Bible.  She has her own, but it's NIV and we don't read that at church or in Sunday school.  So I bought her a pink and green King James Version bible.  I can hardly wait to give it to her!  It is all so exciting to me!

She has her bag packed already for the clothes that she will change into after she is baptized.  She is definitely a plan-ahead-person.....like me.


Glitter Graphics, Happy Birthday Glitter Graphics

On Tuesday of next week, it's my baby's 6th birthday.  My little Bubba.  Bubby.  He's going to be 6!  Did you get that?  6!!  I can't believe it!  No wonder I'm ready for another baby.  He was going to have a friend spend the night tomorrow night, but with me not feeling the greatest, don't know if that will happen now.  Maybe we'll have to reschedule for next weekend.  Tuesday we will have a little family celebration for him and cook or have what he wants for dinner, within reason.  I can't take him out to eat.  Unless he uses his Pizza Hut coupon for his Book-It time.  Maybe that would be a fun thing to do for lunch sometime this week too!

My children are growing up too fast.  Has anyone found a way to slow this down yet?  Let me know if they do.

Friday Fave #125

Welcome to another edition of Friday's Fave 5 hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.  I love doing these every week and actually look forward to it!

My Fave Five this week:

1.  Snuggling and cuddling my babies.  I love to hold them, smell them, touch them, kiss them, hug them, pat them, snuggle them, cuddle them, pet them, eskimo-kiss them, butterfly-kiss them, tickle them and nibble them.  This past week, while Kyle was sick, I got to do one of my favorite things that I miss so much.  I got to rock him to sleep.  Be still my heart.  I have missed that so much.  It's one of my favorite things to do with my babies.

2.  Getting books in the mail.  I love getting all of my books in the mail!  Whether they are to review or they are from paperbackswap.com I just get so excited!!  This week I received The Walk by Shaun Alexander.  I will start reading this one when I am done reading the one that I started last night.  It is one that I got from paperbackswap.com.  Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.

(There are 3 things that should be in every house IMO: 1. Bible 2. Cats 3. Books)

3.  Watching my silly dramatic girl being silly and dramatic.  Stinky likes to dance, make up funny songs and jokes.  She is a silly funny girl that makes me giggle.  I don't know how she comes up with the stuff that she does, but she's hilarious! 

4.  Winning the ticket to HOTM Homeschool Conference!  I was so excited this morning to wake up and find an email from Marsha @ Other Such Happenings blog and find out that I won a ticket to attend the Heart of the Matter Conference on Feb. 21-23!  I wanted to attend this so badly, but I could not afford the $15 to buy a ticket!  Now I get to for free!!  I am so grateful to Marsha!

5.   The sunshine was out this week for a couple of days.  Around here, in the Evergreen State, we don't get a lot of sun during the winter.  It's mostly rain and gray skies.  The other day, if you stood directly in the sunshine, you could feel some warmth.  Just some.  My skin inhaled.  It was awesome.

Short but Sweet

I am running a very low grade fever.  I don't feel sick though.  I wonder if I am coming down with something.  I am awfully tired though.  And just feel run down.  I think for the rest of the evening I am going to lay down.  Maybe watch a movie that I've had from the library for a while but haven't watched yet.  Or maybe just sleep.  that is what I feel like.  If I can get the energy, I might play some Sims 2 tonight.  I think my eyes are too tired to read.  Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow and can post a real post. 

I would appreciate prayers from you who are the praying type!  Thanks!

Time's Out

My time is running out this evening.  But I wanted to be sure and post today.  There I posted, see ya tomorrow.




Lol!

Ok, so that might not have been that funny.  But it's late, and I felt like doing it. 

I should have the interview for my guest blogger by tomorrow.  I am so excited to be posting that!  It should be interesting to read everyone's interviews.  I wish some of my readers, who aren't also a friend from church or facebook, would jump on the bloggerview wagon!  I have 5 ladies so far who want to participate, but they are all my friends!  I want someone that I don't know too well on here too!  Come on peeps!  Tell others!  Sign up!  Leave me your info in the comments if you're interested!