32/365

Today I am thankful for my church. I LOVE our church. It is awesome. I walk out of the service every time feeling so refreshed and ready for the week. I can tell a huge difference between the weeks I go and the weeks I don't go. I often times just need the little reminders that I get from our pastor. The sermons are always like a little therapy session for me, and I really like that. Every week I can take what was talked about and apply it to every aspect of my life. It has been hard getting to church since we have been home with Annie. I have not wanted to leave her in the nursery. Lucy actually loves her Sunday School now, which I thought would never ever happen. I teach it once a month and I think that helped her figure out that it was okay. Last week I thought I would try Annie in the nursery for 15-20 minutes and see how she did. I handed her over and she started to freak. I stood outside of her room for 2.5 minutes and said, hand her over, she is not ready for this. I have this horrible feeling that being in a setting like that brings up awful memories of the orphanage. I could be totally wrong, but that is what I imagine for now - there are a bunch of cribs lined up, several caretakers, and several other babies. Too similar for her at this point. So this week I decided to see how she would do in the actual church service with me. I really had no idea. She is such a good baby, I thought it might work out okay. We sat on the end of an aisle and also on a row where I could hide behind these giant columns if I needed to stand and bounce her. I really wanted to stay for communion, so I needed her to do this for me. She LOVED the music and when the entire congregation would say something - like the Apostles Creed or the Lord's Prayer. She started to get a bit antsy by the time the sermon was starting, so I stood and bounced her and she was asleep for the rest of the service - she didn't even know we took communion today! During the time that she was awake, she had charmed every single person who was in her eyes' view. She loved it when I would let her stand on my lap and she could see behind us. She would be looking around and even though I couldn't see behind us like she could, I could tell every time she caught someone's eye because she did her whole body smile and would jump in my lap. It was really sweet. I hope she brightened those people's day. She sure does mine over and over again. So, I got to really enjoy church with the sweetest angel asleep on my chest. The choir is awesome at our church and during the communion songs that they sing, it was like I was breathing in God all around me. I really had a spiritual day this morning. My eyes welled up with tears multiple times as I reflected on how wonderful my life is.

After church, I took the girls to Krispy Kreme. Today is a special day. Annie is 10 months old today and Lucy is exactly 2.5 today. Lucy got to pick her own donut, which was of course a heart with a million sprinkles on top. That is the one she wanted me to have as well and to be quite honest, I was very pleased with her choice. It was so yummy. Donuts make Lucy wired - especially donuts with creme and sprinkles. She was bouncing around our booth, laughing her little head off. We had to take about a third of Lucy's home because Annie started to get a little antsy after a while. Lucy eats so slow so we were there for a long time. I really wish I would have had my camera. Then, to make this glorious day even better, Justin called and said he would be home around 1, which is three hours earlier than we expected him back!! We all waited outside for him and Lucy greeted him by running into his arms, hugging him, and kissing him. I love to watch those moments. Again, should have had the camera out then, but sometimes you just want to live in the moment and soak it up. I do need pictures though of Lucy waiting outside of our house and how she reacts to seeing her Dada again.

I am going to list a few things that the girls are doing at their new ages. Again, Annie is 10 months old today. She has 4 teeth and is working on a bunch of others. She can babble the sounds mama, dada, papa, and goo goo ga ga. I used to think it was dumb to say babies say goo goo ga ga but Annie really does say just that. She certainly has no idea what any of these words mean, they just come out in random babble, but we still like to hear them. She is working on doing better with sleep. This week she has been improving little by little. She is napping much better - 2 naps a day that vary from 1-3 hours. She loves baby food but only out of a bottle for now. We are stepping away from the spoon for a while until she gets a little more used to the idea of something being in her mouth. I am doing some gum stimulation with her and she is responding well. She still refuses to put anything in her mouth except for one vibrating toy. Nothing else except for a bottle, her thumb to chew on, and now my finger. She will get there with eating. She still drinks a lot of formula and she gets the most precious buddha belly after each feeding. Lucy never got this big tummy and still never does, so I really love it on Annie. She weighed 15 lbs 13 oz a few weeks ago so I would guess she is at least to 16 lbs now. She loves to be on her tummy or sitting up with a few toys. She LOVES the Jumperoo. Her favorite time of the day is probably bath time, which used to be a struggle. She lays on a big sponge and kicks and splashes like crazy. She goes to bed really, really easily. It is just staying asleep that seems to be our problem. She seems to do all of her grieving in the middle of the night. It has to come out somewhere and it could definitely be worse. We are so fortunate because she is just so happy all day long. I really cannot imagine a day without this baby girl. Mandy said yesterday that she could just eat her up because she is so yummy all of the time, and I really couldn't agree more. I just nuzzle, kiss, and love on her all day long and she loves it. I love her so, so, so much - even when she can't sleep.

I am going to say it again, but Lucy is in the greatest stage of her little life. She says the funniest things and has the strangest little quirks about her that make us smile and laugh because only Justin or me would know them. Her vocabulary is really big. She surprises us with a big, long, extravagant sentence all of the time. It is still hard to understand her sometimes, but you sure as heck better figure it out because she gets MAD if you don't know what she is saying. She does not buy the whole nod your head and agree thing. She wants you to repeat back to her what she said so that she can confirm it. She is very adamant about this. It gets a little tricky sometimes, but we can usually figure it out. She is really OCD about a few random things. She wants doors closed all of the time - except for her door when she is going to bed. In fact, every single night she when we kiss her and are leaving the room, she says, "Door open please. Check Dada please." Every night. That means she wants Justin to come and check on her and she says it even when he is out of town. If by some bizarre chance she forgets to say those things, she will quickly remember and we will hear her shouting those phrases at us down the hall and she absolutely will not stop until we say, "Okay Lucy. We will leave your door open and Dada will be in to check on you soon." She has started occasionally responding with a, "Yes ma'am." when I call for her. It is so sweet and it is not really something we have even worked with her on. She learned that from cousin John, so thanks Holly! She absolutely LOVES her school now. I thought we would never get to this point but she is awesome. She walks down the hall with her backpack on and her lunchbox in her hand, puts them in her cubby, and gets right to work. Her teachers always have the sweetest reports to give me and I love hearing that she is opening up so much in there. She knows all of her colors, most of the shapes, can count from 1-15, sings the entire ABC song, and wants to sing songs all day long. Today she told me that she sang Jesus Loves Me at church and I asked her what other songs she sang and she said, "Momma, just other church songs." I died. We don't differentiate at home between "church" songs or nonchurch songs, she just apparently knows the difference. She did the sweetest thing ever last night in the middle of the night. I had just been up to feed Annie and it was about 2 am. Lucy's room gets really cold because it is over the garage but she refuses any covers at all except for her two babies which never stay on her. Whenever I get up for Annie, I always go in and cover her up and kiss her head. She is usually balled up in a little ball and I know she is cold. Last night she woke up when I went in there. This occasionally happens and is no big deal, she will go right back to sleep. I was covering her up with pinky (her blankees are called her babies and their names are pinky and pink-o). She looked up at me so sweetly and I asked her if she was cold. She said yes so I asked if I could put one of the big blankets on her. She agreed, which is unheard of. As I was turning to walk out of the room after I had covered her up, she said momma so I turned back around and got really close so I could see her in the dark. She just whispered, "Thank you momma." and smiled the sweetest little smile and then closed her little eyes. I kissed her about ten more times. I am not kidding when I say that it took my breath away because it was just such a special moment to me. Lucy Goose, just like Annie, we love you so, so, so much. You are amazing.

Wow, this was a long one. I had a really hard time narrowing down the pictures, so here are a whole lot. The weather is PERFECT here today. We even used the word hot when standing in the direct sunlight. I wanted to get this all done before the Superbowl. I am cheering for the Cardinals. I have always loved the underdog if my team is out.











I am really trying to work on finding the best light for pictures, which is something that I have not been that great at doing in the past. The light completely makes an image. This is in our backyard at straight up noon but the light was PERFECT at this angle. Again, check out the bokeh that I have never gotten in any picture before today from our backyard. It is a sea of crystals and I love the sun ray coming down across her head.







Direct sunlight makes Annie's hair even a million times funnier. She is totally Kramer here.


Finishing up her donut.




The obligatory toe picture.


I made it through a whole month without missing a single day for my 365 project. Holla. Can I get a holla back, please?