Happy 1st Birthday, Trey!

October 30, 2007

One year later ... October 30, 2008

Lord, help me remember,
when I feel it's a chore,
the time will come when I'll hold him no more
asleep on my chest (the crib refused,
the blanket, the pacifier, gone unused).
What better place is there to lay his head than
against my heart, my arms his bed?
For babies grow up and leave us behind
with only memories left to remind
us of midnight walking
and predawn rocking,
of soft, helpless babies unable to sleep.
So, Lord, make me patient and keep me awake
while I cradle this child, and don't let me take
for granted the moments I spend in the night
with this baby--Your gift, my joy, my delight.
by Jan Dunlap

We have had such a fun first year together. Trey is growing each day - he is full of curiosity and loves to learn and discover new things. He sits with us at meals, and even though he is not saying words, we are all communicating with each other through silly sounds and lots of laughs. He loves people, and he brings smiles to people's faces everywhere we go. He seems to have a very sweet spirit that we hope will always be a part of who he is. We pray every day that Trey will choose to follow Jesus and that we will be diligent as parents to guide him in that direction. We have been with him every day of his life - and we wouldn't change that for anything. We are excited to see the world through Trey's eyes this next year. He brings new wonder to everyday things. Walking by a bubbling fountain is no longer ordinary - it is all of a sudden fascinating. We feel blessed that God has given Trey to us to love and nurture. We look forward to all that is in store for this next year.

We love you, Trey!

Trey's First Haircut

Before his haircut

Trey's hair was long on top and was always sticking up like he had static cling. We decided he needed a little haircut, so tonight I cut his hair. It took about 2 minutes, and he sat perfectly still the entire time. I used scissors on top and clippers on the sides and back. It made me happy sad to give him his first haircut.

During his haircut - he was very serious

Our handsome boy after

Fun Happenings in October

We have had a fun couple weeks as we still try to settle into this new way that our family is functioning - with me working nights and David staying home to care for Trey and get ready to start resume classes in the Spring. We are enjoying our time here where we live, but we are anxious to get into our own place where we can unpack all our boxes and truly settle into our own home. The short sale process is a lengthy one - we have everything done on our end, and we are waiting on the seller's lender to approve the sale. We are going to Knoxville for Thanksgiving, and to be honest, I hope that we don't close on the house until we get back from Tennessee. I don't really want to close on the house and then be gone for 10 days. We will see what we find out this week.

We went to a family farm day last weekend. We had fun looking at the cows, goats, horses, and donkeys. There was a little traumatic event that happened while we were there. A stillborn calf was being born but it was stuck inside the mama cow - there were all these little kids standing around watching, so that was sad. It actually really grossed me out - the smell, the flies all around, the sight of the farmer manually removing the dead calf without any gloves. And to top it all off, David was hungry - they had a booth there selling food and he bought a hamburger to eat there. I hadn't eaten lunch either, but I COULD NOT eat - I had absolutely no appetite. I know I do labor and delivery, but I don't deliver cows. Overall, we had a good time that day. Trey loved the animals.

Trey discovered toilet paper the other night and found out how fun it is to unroll and unroll and unroll it. I love the look on his face when I walked in and found him. He is a very busy little boy, and he is learning the word "No". We are trying to teach him how to obey - it is amazing that even at 11 months how much he understands.



Trey is enjoying playing with toys more. He really likes this LeapFrog refrigerator magnet alphabet set that I found for him at a yard sale. It teaches the letters of the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes.


This is a typical position for Trey when he sleeps. He still sticks his bottom in the air which makes us laugh. He is a good little sleeper on most days (although David may disagree on nights when I work).

11 months old

Our little man turned 11 months on our 2 year wedding anniversary. It is amazing how one little person can add so much love and joy to our family. It is bittersweet to watch him grow - I love each new stage that he has but I sometimes wish we could freeze "this moment in time" and keep him how he is. He is such a funny little person. He makes us laugh like in these pictures where he was eating whole wheat spaghetti for dinner with us one night. He loved it and proceeded to decorate himself inside and outside with the noodles.

He is cruising around all the furniture, and I have found him standing on his own a couple times. He is a little man on the move! He is so curious and loves to see all that is going on his world around him. Sometimes that curiosity is not so welcome as he loves to put anything and everything in his mouth.

• Favorite foods: we are so thankful that he is a good eater - he loves any vegetable and fruit that we have given to him, yogurt, cottage cheese, string cheese, dried banana slices, oatmeal

• Favorite activities: riding in his Burley bike trailer behind me or David, reading books (only sits still for half a book at a time), watching Veggietales or BabyPraise DVD, following me and David all around the house, cruising along the furniture, brushing his teeth at night
  

• He has 8 teeth now (4 on bottom and 4 on top)

• At the doctor's last week, he weighted 18 lb. 12 oz. - he is currently battling eczema, so we have washed all his clothes in All Free and Clear hoping that will help. We are also having to put antibiotic cream and hydrocortisone cream on irritated areas.

• He has been doing so good at the nursery at church - we have been visiting several churches, and he has done well each time. He never cries when we leave him - he cries 20 minutes into the service and when he gets worked up, he is difficult to console
  

He loves to open and close cabinets

When Trey sleeps, he sleeps hard!

David came in after doing some yardwork and found Trey asleep in his exersaucer - he still likes to play in that

We went to Wickenburg one Saturday and visited my friend Cheryl. It was her first time to meet Trey, and we had fun visiting together. We went to where my old apartment was and Trey and I put our feet in the pool (Trey wanted to jump in). We went to my old favorite place in Wickenburg - the Cowboy Cafe - and had a Cowboy burger. Then we had coffee at the Pony Espresso.

Trey and Cheryl

Eating a lemon for the first time - he made funny faces but kept licking it so I guesseds he liked it

Weekend San Diego Trip

We had breakfast here on Sunday morning - obviously, we were drawn to the name

Our view from the balcony of our hotel room on Mission Bay

Tthe hotel had delivered this to our room for our anniversary

We wanted to do something for our anniversary, but we didn't have any definite plans. I actually had to work on our anniversary, so I didn't think we could do anything on the actual day. One night at work, I was talking with some of the girls about taking David on a surprise trip to San Diego - we had both been wanting to go there, but we weren't sure where to stay or what to do. I looked around on the internet, and I found a package deal on Priceline.com at a Hilton Resort on Mission Bay in San Diego. I told David that we were going away, but I didn't tell him where we were going until we were an hour into our trip. It was so fun to surprise him. We traveled the almost 6 hours to San Diego last Thursday afternoon and spent til Sunday afternoon there. We visited the San Diego Zoon on Friday, and we had lunch at this incredible Thai restaurant. We both love Thai, so we were excited to find a great place. We hung out at the resort's pool on Saturday and then went to a local seafood restaurant called Nick's at the Beach. We also went to the famous Hotel del Coronado - we went inside, climbed 5 flights of stairs, and rode the 120 year old elevator. We had fun on Sunday riding the trolley into downtown and exploring a bit before heading home. We went to several beaches, but we didn't get in because the water was pretty cold.

Trey loved this parakeet

Trey and David checking out the meerkat family

We enjoyed watching the Sea Lion show

We had fun swimming at our hotel

Trey took his nap by the pool

Happy 2 years to us!

We were married 2 years ago today in Endicott, New York, surrounded by our closest friends and family that we love. Our wedding was designed to be a worship service where the focus would be placed onto the ONE who had brought us together just a year earlier.

I would love to say that every day since that day has been blissful. It has, in fact, been very hard on some days. There have been days that both of us have wanted to forever walk away from each other. Neither of us realized how selfish we were until we were living so closely with another person. All my life I dreamed of being a good wife and mom, and I didn't understand why it was so hard to do just that. I didn't understand why it was so hard to care for and love David the way he needed and deserved. And the problem was, there wasn't a lot of places we could go to talk about how hard things were. We wanted to talk to someone, we just didn't know where to go for help. We felt like there was something wrong with us, but then God brought people into our lives who had been where we were. Our community group at Redeemer Church (the Lind's, the Leadbetter's, and the Blackston's) walked with us every week as did David's cousin and her husband. They helped us to understand that what we were experiencing was something they had experienced and God had brought their marriage beyond that to a place that reflected more what God designed marriage to be. I need people to be real with me, and when things were really rough, those couples were honest with us and gave us glimpses of hope. We couldn't have done it without their support.

Thankfully, when we made our vows to each other, we also made them to God. And on days (cause we still have them) when things are tough and it's hard to keep the commitment to each other, we remember that we have made a promise to our God. And when we take our eyes off of ourselves and focus our gaze onto Him, He gives us the strength to love as He has loved us. We have more good days now than bad days. I can say that I love David more today than I did last year. I am thankful to be married to him and feel blessed to have him as my life partner. Please pray that God will help us to love each other and to use our marriage to bring Him glory.

Moving across the country recently has added some stress to our lives. But we both agree that the change was something we both needed. We are now looking for a church where we can worship and be involved in a small group where we can grow like we did in Knoxville. If you think of it, please pray that God will show us where He wants us to go. We have been visiting churches every Sunday and have found a couple that we like a lot.

We hope this will be our new home!

We are so excited to have put an offer on a house in Goodyear, Arizona, and we now have a contract on that house. It is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath single story home with an open floor plan that we love! It has just under 2,000 square feet which is bigger than what we were looking for. The neighborhood has a pool and spa - there is also a local, brand new YMCA 2 miles down the road that we plan on joining. We are getting a great deal on the home because it is a short sale (preforeclosure). They are selling it for literally half of what they paid for the house just 2 years ago. It is about 25 minutes from my work, and there are several schools nearby where David will be able to choose from to attend.

Please pray for us in this process. This is first time for both of us, so there is lots that we don't know. We aren't sure when we will close yet but it will likely be sometime in November. We are also thankful that we are getting an incredibly low interest rate for our mortgage. We are going to put 5% cash down on a conventional 15 year loan - we hope to pay extra on our mortgage and get the house paid for as soon as we can. How cool would it be to own our own home 10 years from now (this is our goal). We will keep you posted on any news that we get.