Virginia

Charlotte and I returned home earlier this week from a fun filled trip to Virginia. One thing that made it so fun is that my mom came with us! She flew in a few days before & watched Charlotte while I worked then we flew together on Wednesday. I am ALWAYS thankful for an extra pair of hands on the airplane, especially if they belong to someone who loves Charlotte as much as I do : ) She was a HUGE help the whole time we were there and took excellent care of Charlotte while I was busy with all the wedding activities.

The wonderful reason we got to go to Virginia in the first place is that my good friend Amanda got married! Amanda and I met on our very first day of work in Labor & Delivery at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas. We became good friends very quickly & had a blast learning & working side by side. She left to do travel nursing in the Fall of 2007 & ended up in Orlando a few months before I moved there. So, we got to work together again! So fun! After her time there, she joined the US Navy as an RN & moved to work in Maryland. I have missed her so much since she left!

I have always admired Amanda for her trust in the Lord & her contentment in waiting for God to bring a man into her life worth spending time with. God brought Pat into her life during summertime in 2009 & they immediately hit it off. After a year of dating, he proposed after a hot air balloon ride & the rest is history! They got married in a teeny little church in the country north of Ashburn, Virginia & celebrated with a reception at a vineyard. It was all absolutely gorgeous....especially the bride herself : )

Growing up with brothers, I never expected to get to serve anyone as their Maid or Matron of Honor. Jenny, my sister in law was the first to surprise with with that special opportunity & then Amanda was the second. It is funny because both Jenny & Amanda have two brothers also : ) So, I have twice loved getting to enjoy that role, standing beside a precious friend as they become a wife & being a person to encourage & challenge them throughout their marriage.

Another special part of our trip is that we got to stay with my parents good friends, the Machesney family. They lived next door to my parents when they were all newlyweds through when I was maybe 3. They have carried on a close friendship through all of these years & we had such a good time catching up! They were wonderful hosts providing some delicious home cooked meals, an evening out to dinner across the Potomac River with the Washington Monument & Capitol in view, pets for Charlotte to love on, good company & lots of hot tea. It was my first time ever to see leaves changing in the fall & I was blown away with how gorgeous it was. We took some walks & Charlotte picked up countless leaves.

Onto some pictures of our trip....

Charlotte & Grandma riding on the bus to get our rental car

the beautiful trees on one of our many walks

Charlotte, me & Marybeth

Char & her pal Sandy. I think sometimes that Charlotte liked Sandy more than Sandy liked her ; ) Unfortunately Sandy is getting old and couldn't get away from Charlotte as quickly as she may have liked.

Me & the bride to be at the rehearsal dinner

Us two girls at the church. My mom made Charlotte the adorable jacket to go with her dress.

Here we are at the reception

I am so sad that this is the only picture I have of the bride and groom but they do look great : ) Amanda looks like Cinderella to me leaned over talking to a little girl who thought she was very pretty!

What a fun trip we had! Lots of relaxing amidst the busy wedding activities! Thank you to the Machesney family, you were such gracious hosts. We hope we can have you visit us sometime!

Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Pat Nicklas! It was such a joy to be a part of your special day!

Kayaking

We have spent the past 2 Sunday afternoons at Blue Spring State Park doing a little kayaking & just plain enjoying the great outdoors. The weather has been gorgeous & we couldn't deny ourselves a couple relaxing afternoons : ) Charlotte had never been in a kayak before & I have actually not kayaked since we moved to Florida. My idea of kayaking is different than my hubby. I prefer to float along the water with as little paddling as possible searching for the perfect moment to pull my legs out and get a tan. Robby likes to go go go : ) Although, I did start paddling like a professional white water rapid kayaker when we saw a 10 foot gator along the side of the water : )

Charlotte did great! The first Sunday, just the three of us went. She was in my kayak for about an hour and was super relaxed. She got lots of compliments on her hat & her courage. This past Sunday we took Steve, Jenny, Karis & Jenny's friend Brooke along. The boys + little miss Charlotte were the only ones who kayaked this time. Us girlies relaxed by the playground. It was wonderful.

I love her little grin in this one : )

Char & her Daddy

this was so beautful!

the boys

Char & her Uncle Steve

There is water everywhere you look here in Florida & much exploring to be done! We need to get some more trips in before my belly gets too big!

Another egg in our nest.....

Our nest is growing! We are rejoicing as we announce that Baby Valentine #2 is on the way! Check out Charlotte's teeny tiny little brother or sister......

Baby V #2 measured 7 weeks 3 days making the big debut around June 11, 2011

As many of you know, our journey to becoming parents was a bit longer than anticipated or hoped for. After nearly 2 1/2 years of waiting on God to provide, He did. Through that time, I struggled with feeling completely discontent with the path the Lord had chosen for me, feeling jealous & envious of others along with feeling down right sad. After the first year, a sweet friend of mine chose a sermon by John Piper called "The Beautiful Faith of Fearless Submission" for us to read through together. This is what the Lord used to change my heart. It is funny because it is not about child bearing at all, it is about submissiveness but, the bottom line is because of what Christ did on the cross, we have hope in God. When our hope is in God alone, we have everlasting joy.


The Lord used this sermon to show me a bit about what a woman who hoped in God looked like.
Proverbs 31:25 says "Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come." I learned that day that I was not hoping in God, I was hoping in myself & others to get what I thought I deserved right then. The Lord was merciful in revealing my sins of discontent, jealousy & wallowing in my sadness. He was faithful to forgive me & helped me turn back to hoping in Him alone. HE made me content, HE helped me rejoice with others in welcoming children, HE gave me joy, HE helped me delight in him & HE let me laugh at the time to come. I am beyond thankful for how the Lord refined me through that difficult time & look forward to sharing with Charlotte how the Lord surprised us with a sweet little girl His perfect time. All that to say, you can imagine our excitement to find out another child was being formed in my womb : )

Here is the big sis checking out the pictures of her new baby

We are thankful & excited to see our family grow. Please pray for the Lord to continue perfectly forming this little one & that we would trust in His perfect provision.

First Tooth!

Something exciting happened this past week. After 15 months of wondering if we needed to start saving for dentures, Charlotte's first little tooth appeared. After a week of sleepless nights and general grumpiness during the day, I was playing with her and said " let me see your teeth" I say this jokingly on a regular basis since there were none : ) I felt her gums and what do you know? A teeny little tooth was starting to poke through on the bottom left. I started crying. Robby told me a few weeks ago that he had been praying for Charlotte's teeth everyday so it was really fun when I got to tell him that the Lord heard his prayer, as He always does, & that Char has a tooth!

Here are some pictures of our first tooth brushing....

with no prompting, she assumed it was a small brush for her hair

then she found her mouth

she was so happy!

she was closest to the actual tooth in this picture

one happy little girl after her first tooth brushin' experience

You may notice that she has quite the bruise on her left cheek. Last night, her friend Matilda was over and they were hugging each other while riding in the school bus. Charlotte got excited and gave Matilda a really big hug while she pulled her backward, off of the school bus onto the ground about a foot below. Charlotte landed on her back and Matilda landed directly on top of her. It was a very unfortunate school bus accident....many tears involved & she has a bruise to prove it!

We will continue to pray for some more teeth...life would be a little hard with only one : ) Just for the record, our pediatrician said that there is no concern about a toothless grin until the child turns two. At that point, they would do x-rays & see if there were any teeth. Thankful for her tooth.

Charlotte at 15 months

15 months.....wow! My how time flies! Charlotte is growing and growing & more fun to hang out with everyday.

This has been an interesting month for us. For almost the entire month we have either been traveling or had someone visiting us. It has been a little too abnormal for Miss Charlotte & she has let me know by beginning to throw tantrums, being very angry when told "no" & hitting me on occasion. Luckily she cannot bite me yet since we are still waiting for a tooth to pop through : ) It has definitely been a new challenge for me to understand & care for her. It has not helped that Robby has been traveling for work....I have attempted to explain over the phone but it just doesn't do it justice. I am so thankful that the past two days that have been just she & I all day long, she has been delightful! I think we needed our routine back & I think she needed my undivided attention.

Yesterday morning she wanted to take her baby, London with us in the car. We had an extra car seat in there for my niece so she rode along with us. It is so sweet to see her be motherly : )

The Stats:

24 pounds-50th percentile

30.25 inches- 50th percentile

Head Circumference- 75th percentile

What the girlie is up to these days:

• still not saying too many words but "talks" like you should understand what she is saying, she told me "no" for the first time today


• stacks about 8 nesting cups or blocks without any help


• when she knocks a tower over, she throws her arms up like "what happened?"


• she has added chin, teeth, fingers & knees to her list of identifiable body parts


• I know she doesn't have teeth but when you ask her where they are, she acts like she is tapping her top & bottom teeth together


• she is SO into trying to balance things on her head


• since her Daddy built her bookshelf, as soon as she wakes up, she is pointing at her books & wants you to put them all in her crib. If you say, "do you want to get out?" she shakes her head "no," she just wants you to pile the books in there with her


• loves swinging at the park....it invokes LOTS of giggles


• does some of the hand motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider & Twinkle Twinkle when we are at the Library Story time


• loves walking up & down the sidewalk outside collecting pieces of grass, bark or leaves & every now and then, a dead worm-GROSS!


• ADORES baby Karis, she always wants to touch her & immediately starts "talking" in a super high baby talk voice when she is around


• she has actually started to be a little picky with her food & many times is not interested in meat although she will eat a whole head of broccoli!


• thinks it is fun to throw a ball or roll it back & forth


• will sit through book after book after book & loves to point out the different animals


• she figured out how to walk backwards & does it at the most random times


• likes watching videos of herself on facebook, she cracks herself up!


• sleeps from 7pm-8am, 10:30-11:45am & 2:30-4:30pm


• eats 3 meals a day + a snack or two


• her favorite food of the day right now is her yogurt with honey & ground nuts, she eats it up unbelievably fast

One of my favorite moments with her happened yesterday morning. We sat down to eat breakfast & I told her that we were going to pray & thank God for our food. So, she put her precious little hands together, we prayed & began eating our meal. A few bites in, she put her hands back together & I asked her,"Charlotte, would you like to pray again?" she nodded her head yes. So we prayed for Daddy then continued eating. A few bites later, she put her hands together again so we prayed....again...and again and again! I think we prayed about 10 times throughout our meal. I continued making each prayer a little longer and she would be completely quiet until I said "Amen" which makes her excited. I just loved it though. We have prayed for her everyday since she was being formed in my womb that the Lord would capture her heart & she would grow to treasure Christ above all else. It is exciting to see just a little glimpse of her understanding that we thank God in prayer for the things He provides for us.

Here she is with her Daddy. These two are ridiculous together.....so sweet! Robby is loving how she runs to him & gives him a huge hug when he squats down. He is still fighting for a kiss from her though : ) This picture was taken during another visit to the fountain in Celebration. Look how happy she is!

Happy 15 months baby Charlotte! We love you & can't wait to see what new and exciting thing you will do next!

Aussie Grandparents

Charlotte's Aussie Grandparents came to visit us over the weekend! If any of you did not know, Robby & his brother Steve each spent a year in Australia prior to becoming married men. They raised support & served full time at Riverside Community Church oustside of Brisbane. Graeme & Anita offered up a room in their home for Robby to live in 2003 then Steve took them up on the offer a couple years later. Graeme & Anita are so dear to us for many reasons. They loved the boys like they were their own & sacrificed a quiet home to welcome them among many others over the course of time. They let me stay in an extra room when I came to visit Robby & then he actually propsed to me in their house : ) Sweet sweet memories with this couple!


We see them once every few years & this time was really neat because they got to meet their american "granddaughters" Charlotte & Karis. They came bearing gifts for the girls, new uggies for the winter, aussie born stuffed animals- a wombat for Charlotte & a cookabura for Karis, some handmade sweaters from another couple in AU & LOTS of hugs and kisses.

We did alot of relaxing mixed in a little eating out & an afternoon in Celebration. It was wonderful to catch up. Thanks for spending time with us. We love you so much!

Happy Birthday Scott!

My baby brother Scott turned 24 years old yesterday. We were sad to not be with him to celebrate but we did get to spend last weekend together : ) I had to post about him so you all could see how special he is.

I love this guy! He is one of the best two brothers ever! Really, he has always been so kind & thoughtful. He makes me laugh SUPER hard atleast a few times a week. He is a man who loves the Lord & encourages others to as well. He is an incredible brother to me, brother in law to Rob & uncle to Charlotte. He graduated from Texas A&M & now lives in Houston working for HP.


a little trip through time in the life of Scotto.........

He is a close friend now that we are all grown up. I miss him terribly living so far away from each other! I hope that little Charlotte can have a brother or two to experince the sweetness of a brother/sister relationship. Love you Scotter! Happy Birthday!