Epiphanie Bags Giveaway

Thanks to my friend Maegan for alerting me to this fab giveaway! Everyone knows my love of giveaways, and this is my new favorite of all time. How amazing would it be to win a new Canon 5D Mark II?! The other prize option is a $2500 gc to Southwest Airlines, which is SUPER tempting, but you need money to stay and eat once you fly somewhere, so that's not as appealing as the camera this time around. And, if I had a fabulous camera, I would of course go and get one of these great bags! I'm loving the Belle bag the most. You only have another hour and a half (midnight CST) to enter - so go go go!

Family

I'm SO excited to share this with you. We got up super early this morning and met up with my friend Erin for a great photo shoot. Avery was a peach, and she was so tickled by Erin and by being the center of attention (but, um, when isn't she the center of attention?). I can't wait to see the rest of the pics and it's going to be so hard to choose just a few to have printed. I wish I had more wall space. Luke thinks I'm crazy for having so many pictures done, but I love them all. I love the ones my fab sister-in-law has done, documenting Avery's first year. I love these family shots from today. I love being able to look back at them and see how our family has changed in the past year. I love looking back and remembering what it was like to have a newborn, and a 6 month old, and now an almost-one year old. And one day, when she's grown, we'll pull the pictures out again and I'll tell her the stories from one of the sweetest years of my life.

Best Wishes

I think my youngest sister has had enough time to share her good news, so I can talk about it openly now. She's getting married!!  Her betrothed is a fabulous man by the name of Dane, and we are so excited to have him join the family. Congrats Brit and Dane!

**Um, I totally don't know how to make the picture fit within the frame this time, or how to change my blog design to fit bigger pictures. My apologies.**

Party Planning

You should see my kitchen table tonight. There is glitter and paper and glue stick smears and hot glue strings everywhere. Rhinestones and needles and thread and ribbons. All to produce this lovely:

 Many thanks to my hubby for 1. modeling with the banner and 2. smiling for the picture finally

I've been diligently, slowly, over-meticulously (is that a word?) planning Avery's first birthday party. She won't remember it, but I will, as well as the 35 other family members coming to it (or at least I hope they do). Really, I blame all of this attention to detail on my mother. You should see her when she plans weddings. I'm just getting lots of practice in now before I help plan my daughter's (or plural) wedding(s) [plural on the daughters, not the number of weddings per daughter]. Did I just confuse you?

The banner is just a little preview for you of what's to come! I've got a whole lineup of desserts planned for the party, lots of flowers and pompoms and pretty little things for the prettiest little gal around.

And I can't take credit for the creativity behind this birthday sign...inspiration found here at my new favorite blog, Style Me Pretty. If you haven't checked this site out, go NOW. It's amazing, and I find all kinds of ideas on here that could be used for birthdays and baby showers and bridal showers.

I Love this Face!!

Balloon!

Avery was given her first balloon at the grocery store this week, and as the checker handed it to her, Avery looked up at me with such delight on her face, as if to say, "Mom, Moooommmm, did you know about this wonder?!"

So we took it home and she bounced it and bopped it and giggled. 

Zoom Zoom

Zoom! from Luke Presley on Vimeo.

I'm so behind on putting pictures up, and I've been getting complaints. (Sorry Mom and Shell!) Here's some old favorites from the past month or so.

She loves books. They're her favorite thing to pull off the shelf or out of her toy basket.

She was crying, but then Nana pulled out a book. All better!

Posing for the camera - I missed the goofy grin by half-a-second.

Girls' Weekend 2010

Sometimes you just need to get away for awhile and relax in the bright sunshiney-ness of God's creation. 

Avery and I were blessed with a spontaneous trip to Port Aransas with my dear friend Crystal and one of her precious babies. Good talks, lots of laughter, relaxing, eating, and being able to spend some uninterrupted time in the Word made for a very good couple of days. This was also Aves' first trip to the beach, and I think she loved it.

Analise sporting some stylish duds and preparing for a nap on the beach.

Please notice the puff cereal stuck to her swimsuit, by the flower. We don't leave home without those. 

 

Once the puffs were gone, Avery switched to eating sand. Not just one bite, but multiple bites. Instead of stopping her, I took pictures. Mom of the Year? Probably not.

February 2010

February was SUCH a busy month for us. Looking back, I'm not even sure how we filled our time, but here we are, now into March. We traveled to Houston for birthday parties and then again at the end of the month for the birth of our new nephew Sidney! He is just the most precious baby, next to our daughter, of course.

 

sweet Sidney with his daddy (Luke's older brother)

I don't think Avery even noticed his existence - you have to be bright and flashy to catch her attention these days.

Smiling for the camera.

 We've been taking lots of trips to the park. I love that she has hair that blows in the wind now.

She's close to walking - she is working on standing on her own, but she won't take a step unless she is holding onto someone or something. So, she cruises around the coffee table and back and forth between it and the couch. She's also bending down to pick up objects, which she promptly drops and picks up again. Over and over. And! This is a big one...she tackled stairs all by herself (with me hovering directly behind her)...she's never been on them before, and up she went without hesitation. How did she figure that out?!

I also spent some time doing some baking for friends. Forgot to take pictures of a couple of the cakes, but I did manage to snap some shots of these. And, to check them out from a better photo shoot, go here.My fab friend Erin is a great photographer, and these were for her daughter's 1st birthday.

Sorry for the sparse posting lately. We're quite busy and we're both battling colds this week- Avery was so nice and decided to share hers with me.

Milestones

We had a doctor's appointment last week (10 months...we skipped the nine month and pushed it back to this month). She's 19 lbs 5 oz, 27.5 inches long, in the 50th percentile. She's graduated to the next carseat because she's so uncomfortable in the old one, but we're still rear-facing for as long as we can. And, she's only had one tiny trip to the grocery store in it, so we'll see how she likes this one. Update: she loves the new carseat. She's quiet again, instead of complaining. Yay!!

Avery has seemed to hit the fast-forward button on milestones lately. Her current doctor is not always my favorite...she seems to shake her head and tsk tsk when Avery hasn't hit a milestone. Without fail she demonstrates it a day or two after the doctor appointment, as if to say, "I do what I want!" So now we have a crawler, puller-upper, cruiser, clapper, waver 10 month old sweetie. And all of this has happened in the past 3-4 weeks.

Per request (I'm sorry for being so slow on getting videos up here!!!!), here are a few of her latest moves.


Clapping from Luke Presley on Vimeo.


crawling and pulling up from Luke Presley on Vimeo.

This last video is pretty long, mostly of her crawling, but you can see her pull up on the coffee table at the very end. Still trying to get good video of her cruising around the furniture. She tends to stop whatever she's doing when the video camera comes out.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I ♥ her.

 

  

 

And the person who those legs belong to? Those legs holding up that cute baby? I love him too. A ton.

This is Avery's new grin - it cracks me up! Oftentimes it's accompanied by a sniffing sound and a nose crinkle.














Not too sure about Papaw's motorcycle!

Cutie Pie

We have a crawler! She'll make it a few steps before resorting back to the army crawl, which is faster for her. She loves to stand and we find her trying to pull herself up on whatever she can get a good hold of. Once standing, she'll stay there and bounce for about 20 minutes, or until she loses balance or lets go. She switches hands and waves with one while balancing with the other. The other day she even took a few steps while holding onto the coffee table as she tried to get the remote. She seems to be hitting milestones at a rapid pace this month, after taking her sweet time with everything for so long.

She also has a cold this week and is so grumpy. We missed playgroup this morning because she seemed to be feeling worse. Her naps have been short little catnaps all day, and she just seems so unhappy. I feel so bad for her.

But check out this cute face she's making now.

The Hard Things in Life

We were in Houston this weekend celebrating a couple family birthdays. Over dinner, Luke's older sister made mention of a topic that has come up periodically in our own marriage throughout the past few years. Adoption. It's something that I really seem to struggle with, out of fear and hesitation and desire, all wrapped up together. My emotions start wrestling inside. I want to reach out to those hurting, to those in need. I want to let go of my insecurities as a person and as a Christian. I want to let God be bigger than me.

We are called to "visit orphans and widows in their affliction...." (James 1:27). But does this extend beyond donation of time/money/etc? Does this extend to giving them a permanent place in our personal homes? Perhaps it should mean that, if it doesn't. But why is this so hard for me to accept?

And also: "Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor...." (Zech. 7:9)

We are all lost without the saving grace of Jesus. We are all orphans, in a sense. But God has offered redemption and grace and a home with him. Jesus reached out to the poor, the homeless, the lonely, the outcasts. We too should be like Him. Instead, we cling to our nice houses and our nice cars and the security of our alarm systems and fences and locks. Our ipods with headphones so we don't have to communicate with the odd man on the subway. We have 2.4 kids and a dog and live in Suburbia. Is there anything inherently wrong with this? No. I don't think so. But we limit ourselves to this. (And when I say "we", I'm speaking to myself more than anyone else - these are my own personal struggles). We tithe, we send donations when a crisis hits, we go on mission trips. But is this enough? Probably not. We can do all of this from a distance, without getting our hands too dirty. We pray. Prayer is good. See this.

 There are a lot of things I struggle with. I struggle with being more open about my faith - I'm quiet and private about it much of the time. I try to live my life in a way that shows Christ's love, but I don't know that people know how important my faith is to me. I'm not bold in it. I struggle with what other people think of me - I am easily swayed by others' opinions. Let me explain this further in regards to the current topic...I have always been open to (the idea of) adoption. I have long considered foster care. I believe these are good things that show some mercy to those hurting. I believe that there are so many children out there who are in need of a little hope, a little kindness, a permanent place to belong, and someone to guide them to God, who is bigger than all of the trouble they have seen, who can give them a home far better than I can. Luke and I have always looked toward the possibility of adoption one day. But now, I struggle. I struggle deeply with this. It started after having my daughter. My first child. My heart learned to love in a way that I never thought possible. But it also learned to worry in a way that I never thought possible. My heart has become selfish - I want to protect her from the hard things in life. I want to shelter her from pain and suffering. I want to have more children, but I want to be pregnant. I I I I I I I....can you hear how bad that sounds? I know that she is God's child, and that I have been blessed to care for and nurture her, as a gift, for however much time He grants, and that she is in His hands. So why worry, right? Because a mother worries. Mothers are on their knees, literally and figuratively, for their children. Relating back to adoption - I'm drifting here, it's late at night, I should be sleeping...I worry for Avery's safety and emotional well-being in bringing a child in who has suffered. (Selfish me.) I let the worst-case scenario stories get to me. I let those who are opposed to adoption (maybe not fully, but still VERY hesitant about it) sway me away from considering it. The naysayers are many. Those living it are few. They are brave. I am wimpy.


But then, I read stories from those who are living it: here and here. I am inspired.

And still - I struggle.

I come up with excuses - we don't have the space, the money, the time. I want to birth more babies. That last one, the babies, actually not an excuse. This is a true heartfelt desire. Is it selfish to create new life when there are lives out there, hurting and alone, that would benefit from a real home with a real family? How can it be wrong to desire new life, a life that is a gift from God, given to us as parents? That was a hard question to think about tonight on the way home. Can't we do both - adopt and have more babies?

I've purposefully left out much of the conversation that occurs between my husband and I in regards to this matter. It's not fair to speak for him or to put on here what I assume he is thinking. I resist out of fear. My husband urges out of....? I don't know. I know his heart is big. And for now that's all that matters.

I Love Ice Cream

My love for it is so strong that I eat it all year round. Even if it's 30 degrees outside and I have to sit by the fire.

playing with her babydoll from Luke Presley on Vimeo.

peek-a-boo from Luke Presley on Vimeo.

Peek-a-boo and Playgroup

Well hello there Avery!! I see you peeking from behind that door.

Avery has discovered the door to her bedroom. She loves to open and close it, over and over again. Sometimes it shuts all the way, and she'll let out a little cry for me to come help her out. She also discovered the door stopper, and I'll hear it going thump-thump-thump for 5 minutes straight. Or I used to...she figured out how to take it off the wall, so now it's been put up.

She also noticed her baby doll for the first time this week. She pats her head and pokes her and then bangs her head into the cradle. We'll have to teach Avery about gentleness.

We've also joined a new mom's group at our church - I've noticed that a few of the gals have been calling it smAll Saints (so cute, right?!). The group started up right around the time we moved to Houston, but now that we're back in Austin, Avery and I finally get to attend and make some new friends. We had a blast today and are so grateful for this new blessing in our lives. Avery gets tickled pink when she's around other babies and just talked up a storm. She's not a huge screamer, but apparently other babies bring it out of her. I pray that over the years we will both make some dear friends from this wonderful group.