Some of my favorite pictures of last year part 1...

I am so thankful for this past year. Here are some of my favorite memories. Lots and lots of pictures!

Dorothy's first moment with Maggie Sue!

Our first family picture.


Mike and his girls.

My family. In small, medium, and large.

Brooks, Jamie, and Mike in DC for the Sovereign Grace Worship God 09 conference.


Mike at Sojourn's CD release party.

...Again Mike at Sojourn's CD release party.


Our friends Lachlan and Ellory Sue with Dorothy at the Ems house.

4th of July with the Degraides and Montgomerys


This sums up my day sometimes.

I am so crafty I make people and quilts.



Grandpa and Grandma Huff with their grandkids and celebrating their 40 years of marriage.

I love this sweet girl.

Maggie Sue Courage

Halloween with the Lewis and Butlers.

Avery and Dorothy.

An outtake from our family portraits with my MamaDear, Mickie Winters. Yes those are pajama pants, with Mary Janes, with no socks.


These pictures were taken by me, Mike, Chuke Heeke, Michael and Mickie Winters, Chip Lewis...and if I forgot to credit someone, let me know.

I'll (try) to blog December pictures soon!

(Thanksgiving 09, the Huff cousins: Gracie, Dorothy, Noah, Sadie, and Maggie Sue)

I have found myself disenchanted by my blog. I think it's partly because I know people read it, but we are all too busy to leave comments most the time. I know this because I have 120 blogs on my feed that I read off and on, and I almost never get to comment on them. Another reason is because in case you are not aware, I have 2 babies 2 and under! And RA. So there you go.

Anyway, I am still here. And I can't make promises about updating, because I know I'll fail at those promises. So keep on clicking over. Chances are you'll get a surprise now and then. When I do post!

My mom and dad in about 1967.

Let's play catch up!

Here is a family pics of my parents 40th anniversary party the last weekend in September.

Mom and dad's community group amazingly donated much of the food and services to have this party and we had family and friends from many chapters of their life help celebrate.

This site is under construction for a few days. Check back for updates and new links!

• I should clean up my links on this blog. I know that some don't exist anymore.

• Everyone I know likes baked beans. They have always been disgusting to me. I wonder if this recipe would change my mind.

• We recently watched Freaks and Geeks and I think it is one of my favorite shows of all time. Except I kept relating to the parents more than the teenagers. Yikes old lady Cosper.

• In a conversation with Mike I kept saying Tyler Perry meaning Tyler Florence.

• Anyway I was talking about it because I always want to like coleslaw because Mike loves it, but I can't discuss the issues that broccoli and cabbage have with my digestive system. It wouldn't be lady like. So I LOVE butternut squash and Tyler (the chef, not Madea) has a butternut squash coleslaw. We are getting ready to make it for lunch right now. Mmm.

• Speaking of fall recipes, Tera has some here. Yum.

• I have been making crepe paper roses for the last week for my parents 40th anniversary party. The first one took me about 15 minutes to make, but I can make them in about 2 minutes after all this practice. I love this kind of stuff, but finishing over 30 so far...it might be a long time before I craft with paper again.

My friend Megan said I should start a blog that documents all the crazy things that Dorothy says...Um I have a blog, I just forget about it sometimes. And the girl talks ALL THE TIME! I try to get them all down. So here is a round up of things Dorothy Jean has said in the past few months. Some I have put on Twitter, some I have put in a journal, and some I have remembered. Tonight I got it all together in one spot. This may be boring to everyone, but me, Nana, and Sue-sue, but oh well.

18-19 months old

• Watched Dorothy use her bacon as a spoon for her yogurt this morning and say, "mmm".
• Can sing A-Z of the alphabet! She just needs the "Now I know" part!
• We went to Wild Eggs for breakfast. When the hostess asked how many Dorothy said "Hamburger, uh huh!

20-21 months old

• "Dorothy's watching her first Oaks day, saying "Horse, horse, horse" (May 1st)
• Dorothy has been saying "Mama's awesome" all day. I guess I say "awesome" a lot, but it made my day. (May 7th)
• Our first one on one time after Maggie was born, we were swinging at my parents house, "Mama I'm just a baby. I'm just a baby too."

22 months old

• "Kelsey please". Wanting to see our friend was when she woke up in the morning.
• Can sing "Amazing Grace" & "Jesus loves me"!
• Watching Man vs. Wild with the family...Dorothy says, "Hey Daddy I want to eat bug!" and now we change the channel.

23 months old

• The end of an era when Dorothy stopped calling oatmeal "E-o" and now calls it "oat-a-meal".
• At bedtime Dorothy sang, "I want to be be like Jesus, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Skinamarinki doo!"

2 years old

• Dorothy nicknamed Daniel Ems "Uncle Corn". She was saying good bye their family and that is what she called him. And this isn't a one time she's done it since.
• Dorothy greeted Michael Morgan by running away and saying "I do not know, I do not know him!" She does.
• After throwing up all day, "I want to sing, Jesus loves me for the Bible tells me so".
• "Mama, a cricket is an insect"

25 months

• Can sing two whole verses of "Abide with Me
• Last night, we gave her ice cream after dinner 2 hours later she was still in awake in bed and screamed "Yeahaw, yeahaw, YEAHAW!"
• After I put on a long dress today, Dorothy patted my leg and said "You make a nice princess".
• And tonight I said "What are you thankful for?" She said "Elbows, diapers, Dora toothbrush, and Diego".

You may have noticed in my Twitter update (to the right), read on facebook, or gotten and email (or all 3) that Dorothy was dehydrated again this week. Because it keeps happening, they are going to do some tests over the next week to make sure her electrolytes and kidneys are functioning properly.

So that was yesterday, which was one of the longest of my life. She woke up late and was non-responsive at times. At one point she melted. Like I sat her down to stand next to me and she just melted into a heap on the floor, then threw up, which she had nothing left to throw up at that point. She got a shot of phenergan while we were at the doc around 11 am, which kept her from vomiting anymore.

At the end of the day she had kept several ounces down and ate some starchy boring food. And then she said with a sigh, "I want to sing, Jesus loves me for the bible tells me so".

Praise the LORD that she woke this morning completely herself.

It's been good to see Mike's trust in God during all of this, he is a great example to me.

Maggie is sad that I haven't blogged in a while.
She wants me to change that.
I told her I would blog more often and that made her feel better.
Also, I have no idea why there is a line under the previous sentence and it won't go away.
Oh well.

I need to enjoy the fact that Dorothy wants to be exactly like me. Soon enough she will want to be exactly opposite of me.

I find myself having an easier time with microbloging on Twitter/facebook than I do writing longer blogs here so I added my updates to the right. Enjoy!

My sweet girls in all their cuteness. It seems that M scratches herself each week no matter how often I trim those nails and D (my climber) gets a new bruise more often than that.

Links

Here are some links that I have found in the last week or so.

These encouraged me as a stay at home mom:
Staying-balanced-while-life-is-full

7-ways-to-find-motivation-at-home


Fun places to waste time:
Awkward family photos (Mike and I laughed nonstop at these)

do u haiku? Flikr group

Recipes:
27 Pasta Salad Recipes

A year of Slow Cooking (I was excited about summer meals and variety in these recipes- it's not just roasted chickens)

Enjoy!

Last week at seven weeks.

And last night at eight weeks old!

Thankful for Maggie Sue

My friend Terri posts her daughter Ellory's prayers. So when Dorothy said her first unprompted prayer tonight I was inspired to post: "Jesus, Maggie Sue, Maggie, Thank you. AMEN!"

Dorothy's love has grown quite a bit since Maggie came into her world 8 weeks ago. Our prayer has been that they would be loyal to one another throughout life. I, a true nerd, looked up loyal: unswerving and faithful in allegiance. I feel like that sums up what I want for them.

The above picture was snapped with Mike's camera phone as we left from the hospital to bring Maggie home.

Just peeking in

Oh my. It has been a while hasn't it? Well you see I had a baby and all. However thanks to some dear friends Terri and Mickie who both recently joined the blogging community, I have been inspired to put blogging back in my life a bit again.

There have been times where I wonder what the point of blogging is, do people really need to know all this about me and do I really want people to know this much about me? What is the reason I have this online journal of sorts?

Mike and I had a really good talk about our life yesterday. We realized that I always say I want to have more structure in our life and he always wants to have more vision for our life. Then we realized that we basically mean the same thing. We both want to have a bit of a plan about how and why we do things.

He encouraged me that I am coming out of a really hard season: a taxing pregnancy (that was completely worth every second!) that also included some of the worst arthritis flair ups I've had, a long recovery from delivering Maggie, and the fact that we have two girls under two. But because we have been in some sort of survival mode since September, I am itching to put organization and structure in my life, our lives.

I am tempted to plan every detail of our life out on paper. Make charts of what needs to be done around our house, a checklist for what fun things to do this summer, and little lesson plans for Dorothy as she learns her colors, shapes, and numbers. That however is setting me up for failure. Sure I can make some lists, but every time I try to map our whole life on paper I just fail. So for the Cospers, we decided that casting simple visions of what our life could look like is the best way for us. Maybe not for everyone, but for us.

My vision casting is this...How can I live my life and glorify Christ in what I do. That means if I am a stay at home, which is my favorite job to date, then how can I do that and show Christ's love to my girls and those around me while we live our life? And as I blog about it how can I show Christ to those who read here?

So welcome again readers near and far. Faithful readers like Janie, Johanna, Alison, Emilee, Rose, and of course Ceece... oh and all you lurkers I may not know about. Leave me a note here or elsewhere and let me know if you are still reading. May I show you why Jesus Chirst is the most important thing in my life, whether I blog about changing diapers, sewing projects, or canning jam, I pray that I would not forget Romans 8: 1-4

¹Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ²because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. ³For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, ⁴in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Maggie Sue

Dear loved ones near and far,

We are so blessed! On Tuesday, April 21st we got to meet our second daughter! She was born at 5:03 in the afternoon. She was 8 pounds 6 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. We were so fortunate to have each one of our parents with us in the waiting room, while our dear friend Karen took care of Dorothy Jean.

Her name is "Margaret Suzanne Courage Cosper" We think we will often refer to her as "Maggie Sue"

Here is the long story behind her name if you want to know the details:

We loved the name Margaret and that it meant pearl. We loved the old fashioned feel of it as it went with Dorothy's name and that we could call her Maggie, which we liked paired with Dorothy as well. Her first middle name came to us around Christmas time when we spent time with our family. We chose Suzanne which for us was the combination of Sue and Ann: This would be a way to honor both her Grandmothers, Sue Ellen (my mom) and Carol Ann (Mike's mom). We also liked that it honored Great-grandmother Ann , and Great-aunt Jane Ann, Great-great-great-grandmother Sarah Ann,

Sue means Lily. Lily was a first name that we both really wanted to use if it wasn't so popular (Mike and Sarah are really popular and repeated so we try to avoid that for our kiddos). Ann(e) means gracious and merciful.

Now we went into the delivery thinking that Margaret Suzanne was going to be her full name. My delivery last time was a crazy one (click here to read about that), but I had experienced God's peace during that time. This time I was struggling with anxiety and Mike was reciting many of the verses in my last post. He also reminded me of the sermon that our friend James preached just two days before on Joshua 1:18

where it says "...Only be strong and courageous!" (Here is a link to that sermon)

and Mike also reminded me of

Deuteronomy 31:6
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

As he told me these truths over and over he suggested that we add that as a part of her name, to remind her and us that the Lord our God goes with us and he will not leave us or forsake us. I loved that.
So... Margaret Suzanne Courage Cosper
The meaning of her name is : Pearl, lily, gracious, merciful and courageous. This is a beautiful picture of what we wanted for our daughter


I wanted our family near and far to know and I thought I should write this down together all in one place!

For those of you who are checking for baby updates...She is coming no later than Tuesday at 3:00! Or he. I got a pedicure from this lady who through her thick accent said, "No, no, No! You having a BOY. The way you carry is a BOY." Well I saw girl parts, but you never know...

Here are the verses that I am meditating on these next few days as we prepare for her arrival! I thought you might pray them for me or yourself. Also, while your saying your prayers, lift up my friend Terra who is due soon too!

Scriptures for Maggie's birthday: New International Version

Philippians 4:4-8
4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Joshua 1:18
...Only be strong and courageous!

Hebrews 3:6
But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.

Psalm 25:21
May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you.

Psalm 32:7
You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.

2 Thessalonians 3:3
But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

Little Miss Dorothy Jean, 7 months old (March '08) in my old dress.

We have been looking at a lot of pictures of old Dorothy. I have not taken many of her at all in the last few months, other than with Mike's iphone. I have torn the place apart for our camera and have every piece EXCEPT the battery charger and extra battery. This explains that when I DO post photos they are either fuzzy (from Mike's phone) OR they are old ones of D. This time: a photo of Dorothy a year ago this month. One of my favorites ever. I can't wait to get our awesome camera up and running so you can see her curls and compare her to that bald head a year ago!

Five weeks from yesterday marks the day of our scheduled c-section...April 21st. Yahoo!

We have been busy with spring cleaning, rearranging the house, our church/Mike's job, raising a 1 1/2 year old, a new nephew (Samuel Joseph Cosper), catching up with old friends, loving on our families and much more.

God bless you all.

Just wanted to tell you that I am ever so grateful for my parents and Mike's parents. Not because of the endless gifts and service they give us, but because of who they are and the fact that they raised Mike and I to know and love Christ and that they stayed together enduring good and bad and showing that marriages can last even in this day in age. I say all this as my Father in law, John had surgery on his leg today. Praise the LORD, all seems to be fine. I am so blessed to have these four in my life.

On a much lighter note, you must check out this post our best friend Lachlan wrote about Mike: The Curious Case of Lachlan Coffey.

Some of my favorite moments over the last several weeks.

Sitting in Grandma Sue-sue's pot.

Playing at Levi's siblings birthday party on the big indoor soccer field!
(Elijah was 6 and Stella 4)

She grabbed this off the shelf at the aquarium. We got her one, but the next size down. We are suckers for really good stuffed animals. We got her a great buffalo out west this summer.

And this is our family Friday a few weeks ago. Apparently shopping wears her out. She slept on both of our shoulders throughout TJ Maxx when Mike asked if she wanted a cheeseburger and french fries, she woke up and said "Yeah, uh huh, yeah".

Tera tagged me...I was supposed to go to my 6th folder and get my 6th picture, but I just picked the 6th picture on my desktop. This is Miss D at the 930 this month. I would like this piece of art, from Lost Love in D's room.

Update:

• I have a tentative c-section date of April 21st!
• That is 10 weeks away!
• Mike,Neil, and the Sojourn worship team have almost finished their next CD!
• Mike is the co-founder of the Open Sourcebook, an free online liturgical resource for churches. It just launched this month.
• Sojourn has some GREAT new web blogs and resources. Check out TravelBlog. (SO THANKFUL FOR BOBBY GILLES WHO MAINTAINS THIS)
  
• Dorothy had her half birthday this week, that means she is 1 1/2!
• D talks in sentences as of this week. Some of them make NO sense and the other half are clear as day "I don't want noodles mama." "Read stories mama?" "Thank Jesus for cheeseburgers" Mike and I just look at each other shocked. I prompted her to thank to say thank you and she said "Thank you Mike" then started laughing, because she used his first name. She continues to call Mike's parents "Nana and Papa" And has labeled my mother "Sue-sue" and my dad..."Gamp-pa Sue-sue". I am not sure how he feels about that.
  
• We are sill dealing with so much crappy health...We all had colds and for Mike and Dorothy it developed into bronchitis...Mike's back, my arthritis. We just continually have to do life our own way. I have had to step back from a lot of expectations that others have on me and that I have put on myself. It is hard, but it is so nice to remind myself I am putting God first and then my family. And that is all that matters right now.
  

We got to go the Newport Aquarium just before New Years. This is in one other tunnels where the fish and sharks swim over you. It makes me so happy and sleepy.

Later in the day we went to the Gap Clearance Center and I stocked up on maternity clothes. Mike paid for all our clothes while Dorothy and I had a snack in the car. I forgot and left this brown sweater in the cart, he asked the cashier if it was theirs and then he said, "Oh no, that's already my wife's. She wears that everyday". After he told me that story I vowed not to wear that sweater anymore...because it's basically true. I mean it's not a maternity sweater, but that one button makes it work well as one. I am just 6 months in that picture, and at this point I can't find many/any sweaters that don't look a like a jumbo woolen tent on me. Then I realized just as I was writing this, I think I wore it three times in the last week. Oh well... If you see me in this sweater just smile and know I'm warm.

Peaceful moments in our day...

...moments later Ginger skipped up to Dorothy accidentally knocking her over, I went to sweep Dorothy into my arms only to have the camera around my neck swing and smack her in the forehead... like I said peaceful moments...

Things I need to remind myself:

• Doing the laundry EVERY week is a lot easier than once a month. Going to the grocery store once a week is easier than going when the groceries run out. Just got out of the habit of these in December.
  
• A one year old doesn't always mean what she says, or say what she means. And she is a little sweet ball of emotions and you will miss this so much when she is older.
  
• Watching E news and The Soup are not sufficient ways to know whats going on in the world. I need to read the newspaper and watch the nightly news more and E less.
  
• I am me, and we have health issues and life circumstances that others don't, and that means we can't do it all and that is fine. We are living our story our way.

Happy New Year! I am horribly behind on so many things and I have to be OK with it. Christmas was beautiful and we had a bit of rest. Mike is healing slowly, Dorothy talks ALL DAY, I am well (a little arthritis), baby Maggie is moving and heartbeat is always strong during Docs visits. Just going to catch up on life the next few weeks...Keep checking in!

Tomorrow I will be 22 weeks out of 40. Here is a picture of me this week, I don't like my hair or smile but oh well. They were a little concerned early on because I was so sick and not gaining but let's just say the last day I threw up was Thanksgiving and I have a healthy appitite back and my parents put SO MANY candy bars in my stocking. Again let's just say that low weight is no longer a concern.

Mike and I look forward to a new resolution for the new year...WE LOVE RESOLUTIONS. Like our good friend Rob, said in his sermon this week... we categorize and type out our goals.

Anyway our biggest health resolution: Lay off the fructose corn syrup. I know it is impossible to never have any, but we both have so many health issues that are proven or suspected to be caused by sugar that it is a logical step towards health for us. We are not eating fast food as much lately and that has made us feel better too. My mom and dad were pretty good about not letting us have junk all the time growing up that I think I need to be an example in that with our kids. Depriving them is not cool I don't think but, having junk food all the time is not cool either.

And you know what else is not cool, I think...the fact that I still say "cool". Sheesh, I am nerd.

Good thing we don't plan on teaching Dorothy that Santa is the reason for Christmas :)

May Christ's birth be on your mind as you celebrate with family and friends. I am looking forward to it and wish you all a very blessed day. Love to all.

I love this recipe: Creamy Chicken Lasagna. Even more than that, I have been making the creamy sauce and using it for spaghetti. D loves tomato sauce, but she still has a hard time eating really acidic foods so adding the cream cheese helps.

So my dear auntie Jane reminded me that I forgot to post what we are having this second time around! It's another girl. We are very excited. We have decided on a first name, Margaret. We will probably call her "Maggie". This week marks the halfway point to this pregnancy. And I love eating. I can still hurl at the right smell, but food is more of a friend than an enemy.

So waaay back in the middle of October I was in my second art show. Our church has this really wonderful "Affordable art show" during the neighborhood fall festival. Also notice the two art pieces behind me, my nieghbor and friend Elizabeth did those and Mike and I got the green one for each other for our anniversary last week. I kind of love that tradition, buying each other a piece of our friends art for hoildays. He got me two pieces last year from our dearest Michael Winters friend.

It is great because the art show has very established/formally trained artists and crafters as well as newbie self trained ones like me. I made purses and onesies just like last year...and sold well (about 90% of my stuff sold!). I have barely sewn since then until this past weekend, when I made my 8 gifts for our churches gift exchange (tell you about that later). I hade a lot of people ask about my cowl (the tube scarf around my neck in the first picture, so I'll probably make some of those to sell next year).
I have got to make more girly onesies and more owls. I am also planning on making toddler shirts...but not until at least after Christmas!

(Thanks to my friend Ashley L. who took these pictures for me!)

Nine years of marriage!

Today Mike and are celebrating our nine year wedding anniversary. We were 19, in love, and never looked back. One of the best decisions I've ever made. Here are the flowers that Mike sent me today. I took these photos with Mike's phone so they aren't as clear as normal.

It is a combo of roses, daises, orchids, and gladiolas.

Here is the meal we made together. Lucky Dorothy got to share in the fun, we have a dinner date this weekend too!

Fillet Mignon, portabello risotto, and the best stinking salad I ever had
(spring greens, pomegranate seeds, garlic and herb boursin cheese, and blush wine vinaigrette) .

Happy December! Thank you so much for all the love again. Our life is taking on a bit of normalcy. Mike is still in major back pain but we see a specialist this week. We have our 9th wedding anniversary on Thursday and we find out the gender of the baby on Monday! Here is a picture of Dorothy's first corndog. About 2 minutes later she had taken the "corn" off the "dog" and inhaled them both.

Well, you are all so loving. I have received many emails and facebook messages asking how we are and the truth is we have been better. You probably remember that I am now 16 weeks along. Since about week 7 I have been extremely nauseous and throwing up on an almost daily basis, with a few needed days off here and there (yes it's still happening...just this morning). I traced my previously mentioned RA flair up to the same exact day that I started drinking regular coffee! Seriously, the day I had this amazing cup of Guatemalan and that was the day before my shoulder went crazy. ANYWAY. Dorothy has been battling a stomach bug and dehydration since Saturday. She didn't eat more than a few bites for 4 days. On Monday as we were feeling out of the woods with D, Mike called on his way to the ER. His back injury was aggravated, possibly the worse I have ever seen him in the 7 years of this injury. This entire week was very hard because of back spasms,pain, and such...Well Mike likes is privacy and I probably shared too much. But please keep us in your prayers. We have more doctors visits coming up, some for Mike and some for the second baby (heartbeat and ultrasound!).

Oh, but despite all this. We have had some quality family time together and Dorothy is adding new words and funny habits every day. Just as she turned 15 months she started calling me "Mama". She has been saying "Dada" since she was 9 months and calling me "Sarah" randomly since July.

We have also been talking a lot about babies and looking at pictures of babies and her doll. I am slowly getting her to be gentle with the doll and the baby Jesus from her nativity. She chucked baby Jesus the first time she had him, but this morning she picked him up and kissed him. Progress!

I am still here!

Hello! I hope you still check this blog! I am back. Probably not every day, but I hopefully can post a bit more than I have been.

I haven't had morning sickness in three days! I am 14 and 1/2 weeks along I have been sick for almost 8 1/2 weeks. I am hopefully on the mend. A lot of you have asked and I was not this sick with my first pregnancy. Maybe 3 times total that time. I have lost count this time. No two pregnancies are alike, I hear.

We took Dorothy to hear the heartbeat of her baby brother or sister last week. She charmed all the nurses and doctors and played with all the things she shouldn't and had no idea why we were even there. BUT! I think we got through the appointment much quicker than normal because of her presence. Not that I am ever taking a one year old to the doctor again, unless it's for her. The above picture is her running the hallway as I made the first payment on our second kid :) Just as we pay off the first kid we start paying for another- It is certainly worth it though!


Oh and I found this funny picture of D. This was on her way to meet Ruby Laffin for the first time. I love that she is waving at 6 weeks (well accidentally waving) and that she still is working on the eye control, and she is so rolly-polly.

Please pray for me if you can. Just as I am doing better with the morning sickness I have had two flair ups with my RA. I pulled my shoulder last week, the worst it been in about about two years. Then this weekend as I geared up to sew, I had a flair up in both wrists, again something I haven't had happen since before Dorothy. Not exactly a good thing for a lady trying to sew for a little business. Well enough typing on these hands for now. Love to all, near and far.

Happy October! We went to the Zoo for the big Halloween party tonight.
I'll go on the record and say Mike and I are not obsessed Wizard of OZ fans. D was named after my Grandmother and Mike's aunt. BUT! we wanted to have her dress from the movie at least once. We figure it will be all too soon before she has strong opinions on who she wants to be.

Hello again. I miss you friends. I am still getting sick quite often, probably ever other day. I have been devoting most of my internet time to tetris and facebook. Because it is more mindless than blogging. I am encouraged by so many of that have checked in on me. Thank you and God bless you. I have the afternoon to myself now to sew for Sojourn's Affordable Art Sale. My mom and D are hanging out today. I'll post pictures of our fall happenings soon. All energy has gone to loving my Mike and Dorothy and sewing pretty things for this Saturday's show. Love.love.

On the mend...

Warning! Terra and other queasy friends DO NOT READ FURTHER, this is a gross little story:




I have been feeling better...until my dog ate a bird and then well lost the contents of her stomach. BUT, I still kept breakfast down. Mike had just left for work and I ran from the scene of the crime and called him. My man turned around and came back to clean it all up. He is such a good man. BUT, praise God, I DID NOT get sick! Because when I start I can't stop. So, thank you for the many prayers and maybe, just maybe I am on the mend. And if not then I am at least so blessed by the last 5 days that have been puke free and the last 2 days that have been (almost) nausea free!

I miss you all!

Hello friends and family, near and far. It's been 14 days since I posted! Well 7 days in the middle of that 14 we had no power because of the hurricane winds that hit our region. During that time my 1st trimester nausea hit it's peak and Mike's back injury added some extra interesting juggling. But praise God we had friends and family host us. 2 nights with our dear friends, Daniel and Mandy; 3 nights with Mike's parents; and 2 nights with my parents. So I have put sewing and blogging on the back burner as I put the my time with God and caring for my Mike and Dorothy. So much easier said than done. Love to all.

This free offer says there are no strings attached. I gave it a try. 2 free years of Parents magazine.
Happy Wednesday dear friends.

I suppose I could go ahead and say it. We are having another baby. In the spring.

That is why, you might notice that I have not been so up on posting or crafting these last few weeks. So, please pray for me and our safety and health for all of us. I'll still be posting at least a few times a week and I have a few projects I hope to be working on so I'll share those soon. I also need to draw a name for that give-away. Sorry that was put on hold.

I am blessed to already know of a few ladies that I have very close due dates with. Terra, Courtney, and Maggie I look forward to this journey with you! Please lift each one of us up in prayer over these next few weeks of queasiness.

Remember when I told you Dorothy hugs by bumping her head into whatever she loves?

I realize that I may not have been altogether honest, you might have assumed that I take all the pictures on here. You see, if there has ever been a well taken picture on here, well then, Mike probably took it. I have always just been a point and shooter. But I am learning! I never expect to be a great photographer, I have so so many friends that are stellar at that. My goal is just to take some pretty pictures of my babe without it being too dark or overexposed. SOOO, I took these photos above. I am finally learning the settings on this fancy Cannon we have. Not the best but I am getting better!

I love...

I love watching these little fingers explore. The way she learns. Just like when she licks things or bumps her head against them (which is her version of hugging). Just loving the little learning process.