she is here!

With hearts absolutely FULL of joy and gratefulness, we announce the arrival of our sweet miracle, Emily Grace. Born on 9/18, weighing 7 lbs 11 oz and measuring 19 1/2 in. We. are. smitten. :)

"someday" has come...a summer recap

So, it's been more than a year since I blogged. Good grief. What have I been doing? Well, a lot, just like most everyone else I know. I've thought about blogging so many times in the last year. Just haven't followed through. I've decided now is the time. There is much to catch up on, but I'll start with just our summer since that seems way less overwhelming than the past year or more. :) Then I'll try to catch up on other happenings in the coming days/months.

Here are some quick highlights of our summer happenings including a few snapshots along the way...

May: Celebrated Mother's Day with the Chipmans visiting. Took lots of belly pics. Got some sweet pics of Baby Chipman. Wrapped up Ab's first year of preschool with a field trip to Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington. Had dinner and a great visit with John's best friend from college and his family as they were traveling cross-country to land on the East coast again with the Navy. Took a short, but wonderful, family trip to Indy to visit the Zoo and Children's Museum. Enjoyed the first of our many trips to the pool. Celebrated my 35th birthday.

June: Planted our first garden...and what fun it has been! Took lots more belly pics. Celebrated our 10th anniversary with a trip (sans Abby) to St. Charles, MO. Such memorable trip, and one that was way overdue. Beyond grateful for my sweet hubby. Celebrated Father's Day at the Chipmans' and had a great visit with John's Aunt Nancy who was visiting from Nashville.  Spent lots of time at the pool...and watched Ab make huge strides in swimming. Yay! Took Ab to her first drive-in movie...Cars 2. Such fun!! Watched our garden grow. Watched the building progress of Ab's future school in our back yard.

July: Endured one HOT month by spending lots more time at the pool. Whew! I've never been so grateful for the pool. Watched Ab make even bigger strides in swimming. We call her "Nemo" now. :) Celebrated the 4th weekend with two different cookouts. Lots of fun! Enjoyed another fantastic VBS at FCC. What a (tiring, but) great week. Celebrated our niece, Holly's, 17th birthday in Springfield. Watched our garden flourish...with daily waterings. Watched my belly grow, grow, grow. :) Endured a computer crash. :/ Got a fantastic deal on a netbook. :) Yay! Enjoyed a trip to KY to visit my family and meet my sweet new nephew, Aven. So stinkin' cute!

Other than our day-to-day playing in the sprinkler, making cookies, having picnic lunches, visiting the park, napping because Mom is worn out...those were our summer highlights. It was another great one!

The summer really ends in July for us since August now equals school. Next up...the start to Ab's second year of preschool.

someday

Someday I'll get back on the blogging wagon again...and maybe even catch up from the last six months. Someday. For now, I'll leave you with some pics of our summer happenings since mid-June. It's been an interesting one. We've experienced more loss and heartache. But that heartache has been surrounded by tons of fun ... praise God. He is good.

So, without further ado, in the last few weeks, we've had...

Lots of pool time...

...and hanging out with friends.

A tour of the Marble Slab Creamery. Yum!

Swim lessons!

 A visit to our old stomping grounds...

 

...to enjoy the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal.

More fun in the sun.

Dressing up like a cowgirl...

because it just seemed like a good thing to do

on a Sunday morning before church. :)

Enjoying the Fourth of July parade...

...and then more family time and a treat...

...before a great fireworks display that night.

Well, that catches me up on the last few weeks anyway. :) Whew! And now we're gearing up for a crazy week of VBS. Good stuff! Hopefully more to come soon...

year-in-review

As usual, it's so hard to believe we're closing another year. John and I try to sit down each year (typically on New Year's Eve) and look back and document the major happenings from the year. It's a lot of fun to reflect, reminisce and be reminded of God's goodness. So, here's our year in a nutshell (events anyway)...

Finished up bottles with Abby just after the new year began. Briefly attempted potty training. Celebrated Abby's second birthday with family party at home. John's folks visited for Super Bowl weekend. Vacationed in the Wisconsin Dells at Wilderness Resort. Visited John's family. Got rid of the paci. Woohoo! My folks visited. Briefly attempted potty training again. Watched WKU defeat Illinois in the NCAA tourney.

Enjoyed Easter with family in KY. Visited John's family. Met and listened to Mr. Steve and Super Why from PBS Kids at the Library. Introduced Abby to the "Sound of Music". Loved listening to her sing "Do Re Mi" in its entirety over and over. :) Attended our nephew's high school graduation. My folks visited. Had lots of picnics and play time at several of our parks as well as the pool. Converted Abby's crib to a toddler bed. Enjoyed our first camping experience with Abby. Had a blast on a short vacation to St. Louis to the Zoo and Children's Museum during the hottest weekend of the year. Visited John's folks. Visited family for niece's birthday. Attempted potty training again. Success in just a week! No more diapers, pull-ups, nothing! Yahoo!

I had my second laparoscopy for removal of endometriosis. My folks visited and helped out after my procedure. I attended a Princess Social with Abby at church. Abby started her fascination with drawing on the easel including drawing letters completely self-initiated. Visited family for niece's birthday. Lots of visits to the pool and the orchard. Had a blast volunteering for VBS at church. Discovered mold in the basement. John's folks visited. Had a positive pregnancy test in August. Went to the IL State Fair. Shared the good news with John's family. Took Abby to the Extreme Makeover Home Edition site. Went to the Urbana Sweet Corn Festival. Shared the good news with my family when we visited for Labor Day. Spent the day on the lake on Cathy's boat. Attended volleyball and football games. Tailgated with friends. Abby's love for bathing her dolls in the bathroom sink began. Had an ultrasound to identify miscarriage of pregnancy #2. Had a D&C the following day. Moved Abby into big girl bed and new room. Abby drew her first "person." Won tickets to Matthew West concert and had a blast with some friends. My folks visited. Dressed Abby up as a princess for Halloween and went to Simply Funfest at church.

Attended Living Proof Live conference in Springfield. John's folks visited and attended football game with him. Bought a new-to-us minivan. Yay! Visited John's family just before Thanksgiving and mine on Thanksgiving. Went to choose-and-cut tree farm to get our Christmas tree. Another positive home pregnancy test in early December. Pregnancy confirmed by doc a few days later. Had emergency surgery for ectopic pregnancy less than a week after that. Abby performed in her first Christmas "presentation" at church with a stage full of other 2-5-year-olds. Spent a quiet but very fun Christmas at home--doing crafts, reading tons of stories, baking and decorating cookies, building a gingerbread house, opening gifts, playing with new toys. Yay for new traditions! Visited John's family after Christmas. Partied with friends and their families for New Year's Eve.

What a year. Lots of change. Lots of fun. Lots of joys. Our share of heartache. And an abundance of God's grace and mercy through it all!

Happy New Year!

first family snowman

We built our first snowman with Abby today. She thought it was a great idea at first, but it didn't take long for her to become more interested in throwing snowballs. :) We did have a good time playing in the snow though, and we were quite pleased with how our snowy dude turned out. 

snowy adventures

Abby absolutely loves sledding...so we discovered when John got to take her for the first time this past weekend while we were visiting his family. He took her (up and) down the hill several times. The faster down the hill, the better, though she did prefer to cover her face so as to avoid all the snow in the face. It was so fun to watch though. And she enjoyed making snow angels with her Grandma, too. It was so difficult to sit back and watch the fun. (I was still physically recovering from surgery.)

Christmas happenings

So, we had already determined this year that our new Christmas tradition is to be home on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Of course, we didn't realize what a blessing that'd be this year with me recovering from the surgery. We've been so excited to begin new traditions this year and continue some we already had. The week around/of Christmas looked like this for this family of three...

Abby first Christmas performance with the little ones at church. Abby even attempted the singing and motions a bit, but it was all over for her when she saw John as she was exiting the stage. :) Christmas crafts. I was impressed with Abby's creativity. Christmas-y PB&J. Always tastes better when they're different shapes! Christmas Eve Eve family dinner out. Abby admiring the gifts under the tree and being a ham for the camera. Our first gingerbread house. Yes, she had lots of help from Mom...and was much more interested in eating the candy. :) Continuing our tradition of making and decorating sugar cookie cut-outs. I thought we'd never run out of dough! Was fun though, and I was thoroughly impressed with John's decorating. Watching "White Christmas" a bazillion times per Abby's request. Watching "The Nativity Story" (and zipping past several parts) on Christmas Eve (and answering lots of Abby's questions about who and why and where...). :) Late-night Christmas Eve gift wrapping. Christmas morning gift opening. A new Christmas breakfast tradition of pumpkin cinnamon muffins. Yum!! Playing with new toys. Reading new books before a much-needed Christmas nap. Assembling new toys. Playing some more. Enjoying a yummy Christmas dinner. Singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Enjoying an after-Christmas celebration with John's family.

Here are a few photos from the week...

Quite an eventful week! We are so blessed. Such fun celebrating the birth of our King!