4 months old!

On January 26th Molly turne2d 4 months! It is so hard to believe she is 4 months old already. It really seems like yesterday I was wobbling around pregnant with her, missing Bryon while he was deployed, living with my parents and waking up every morning to my sweet nephew Casey yelling, "HA HAAA" up the stairs as my alarm clock. (HaHa is what he calls me). Now my family is together, Molly is growing and we are about to make a huge decision about our future. Bryon has one more class before he is finished with his masters degree in internaitonal relations, i'm all done with school and will be looking for a part time job here shortly. All I can say, is God is good. He has been our provider, sustainer and we give Him all the praise.

So an update on little miss Molly. She is now very verbal and a lot of fun. Gone are the days of staring blankly into space. She knows Bryon and I and smiles and laughs whenever she sees us. She is an extremely happy baby, hardly ever cries and sleeps 7-10 hours a night. She is a good traveler, loves playing with her hands and catching glimpses of her feet. She talks non-stop, sucks her thumb occasionally, and loves her bouncer, activity center and activity mat. She has disliked her bumbo chair up until lately, now she sits in it and looks like a little person! I think she just had a growth spurt last week. She ate constantly and woke up during the night to eat for about 4-5 days. Now she is too big for her 0-3 month clothes and is wearing a 3-6 month size. She's wearing a size 2 diaper now, well she will be when we use up the few size 1's we still have left. Her favorite thing to do though is to snuggle with me and Bryon and look at the paintings we have on the wall. More than anything we show her, she absolutely loves wall hangings. She could stare at them for hours.

We go on Monday for her 4 month well visit and to get 2 shots. We are giving her shots slower than the standard schedule recommends. She is getting the second DTaP and Hib at this visit. I'll post an update after I find out her height and weight. I weighed her here at the house and it said 13ibs and 13oz so we'll see!

So happy 4 month birthday little girl!

Snow!

Today we had snow.. and lots of it! Well, lots comparatively speaking. Bryon's family in Pennsylvania would say we had a very little bit of snow (our 2-4 inches) but to us southerners, that is a ton! So, of course, whenever there is the least bit of bad weather, the entire state shuts down and today was no different. The army even shut down and Bryon had the day off.. We decided Molly needed to go out and experience her first snow, freezing or not and here are our pictures of the experience.

Thumb Sucking

So this is a series of shots where Molly progresses from being asleep to sucking her thumb. I have to admit they are adorable, even though I don't particularly want her sucking her thumb.

Typically though, she only sucks it if she is hungry. So I really think she will grow out of it.

I am also excited to report she has found her hands! Yes, just this past week, she realized that she has hands and now enjoys staring at them. People keep telling me to just wait until she discovers her feet!

Asleep, or so you think...

hmm, I think I want a taste of that yummy thumb. Here it goes...

Man my thumb is so good!


Oh, I'm too sleepy to suck my thumb anymore

NOT!

Stroller rides

Molly and I have been enjoying the outdoors this week. This is little girl all snuggled up in her stroller while we went on an adventure around the neighborhood. Notice the hat, lovingly hand made by her gram. We have lots more than just this one but I love the little bow on the top!

Bryon had duty all week, which basically means he has to leave for work around 5:15am, skips lunch and doesn't get home until around 6pm or so. Fortunately, this isn't an every week thing but it is definitely getting old. This is a four day week for him though, so only one more day of duty left! One good thing about the Army is that they observe every holiday known to man, so despite the crazy and sometimes ridiculous things he is asked to do, we do get more days off than most people.

Oh and please say a prayer for Bryon tomorrow. It is the last time he will EVER have to jump out of a perfectly good plane again, THANK THE LORD! Most people don't know that he is very afraid of heights. Yes, that sounds crazy I know, but he chooses to be airborne because of the extra $450.00 it gets you per jump. The Army doesn't pay a lot by any means so every little bit helps. Plus, I think the bragging rights will be worth it one day when he is able to tell Molly stories about his old Army days jumping out of perfectly good planes. :)

Moo Moo

My little Calf wearing her cow outfit toady. Too cute not to take a picture of :)

Rose Bowl

Despite the outcomes of the Rose Bowl this year, I have to post a few pictures of the occasion.
Bryon and Molly sported Penn State gear and were ready and in position a whole hour before the game started. Molly also had next to her seat her accessories: ie: Penn State mini football and pom pom. Our friends, the McDanelds, came over to watch the game with us on our new TV and we really had a blast. So, despite the sad outcome of the game, the day was wonderful! Not to mention it was the first day of our new year, much to be thankful for!

The couch was too far away from the TV so my sweet husband had the moveable chair right up close. And yes, Molly was just as excited as he was about it. The one night she gets to watch that much tv :)

Decked out for the game

Cheerleader in the making, or football player?

Hello world, I'm back!

This is Molly's chair that sits at the dinner table with Bryon and I. She adores it as you can see. After battling her Bronchiolitis and RSV virus, we are thrilled she is on the mend. Yesterday, was the first day she really wanted to play a lot and her appetite has come back with a vengence. Praise the Lord!

Still have to prop her up to play verses laying flat on the floor but as you can see she is grinning and talking up a storm again. She even is able now to grasp some of the toys dangling from this mat. She doesn't really know she is doing it but sometimes will accidentally grab one of them and hang onto it, even shake it sometimes.

Discovering her activity center. This is one of her favorite toys now. She is really probably too little to play in this but it amuses her and challenges her to hold her head and body upright, so we put her in it.

If any of ya'll have the Baby Einstein toys, you will know what I'm talking about when I say her favorite part of the activity center is the sunshine that rattles. I think it's especially fun because I always sing "You Are My Sunshine" to her with ridiculous faces and voices when I rattle it for her. She gets a kick out of that.

So yeah, her feet don't exactly touch the bottom yet but it doesn't seem to bother her.

Get'er done!

Today marks a very momentous day in the life my vehicle, it surpassed the 100,000 mile mark. My car is the best, most durable SUV ever made. I drive a 2003 Honda CRV which I was given by my parents back when I was in college. I was always made fun of because I got my car BEFORE I graduated and my sisters weren't allowed to get theirs until AFTER they graduated. My parents joked that they knew I would graduate but they weren't so sure about my sisters. By holding out on the car, there was a greater chance they would actually finish :) To further show my nerdiness, they added to that joke just like they worried my sisters may never graduate, that they worried I might stay in school forever.. yes, I am a nerd, but in all fairness, I am married to an even bigger nerd. I was only in college for 7 years but Bryon has been in now for 9.5 years, huggeee nerd :)

All that said, my car clicked over onto 100,000 miles today and we were able to capture the momentous occasion on camera. So, way to go little CRV. May you live many more years.

99,999 miles

100,000 miles!!!

PS. I would also like to add that Bryon continuously fusses at me for forgetting my seat belt and today, I have proof that he doesnt always use his (note the fasten seat belt sign in both pictures). HE was the one driving the car and taking these pictures.

I'm a big girl!

Molly holding her bottle like a big girl!! And Bryon insisted I let everyone know this was not staged. She was eating her bottle the other day and he took his hands off and this is what she did. Now, with that said, 9 out of 10 times she is not this skilled, but she's learning! Oh and speaking of hand usage, she is becoming a mean thumb sucker. I'm definitely trying to prevent this from continuing. It is one thing to break a passy habit but you cant cut off a kid's thumb, that is a much harder habit to break. Any suggestions? We try giving her a passy but she wont take it unless she's in the car. The funny thing is that her little fingers are so long, when she tries to suck her thumb, she gags herself. So cute.

And on another note, Happy Birthday to Cousin Ayden!! He turned 1 today and is absolutely adorable. We had to miss his party because Molly is sick but we want to give him a big shout out! We love you Mary, Nate and Ayden. Happy Birthday little man!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

When I think of New Year's growing up, mostly I think of my mom fixing the traditional new years meal with collard greens, pintos, and pork and telling us we had to take a bite of everything. If we didn't we would be broke and have bad health. Yuck, I hated that meal worse than any other meal that year, not that my mom didn't prepare it well, but just every one of those three food items I don't care for at all. Now that I'm a parent, I look forward to the idea of preparing the New Years day meal for my family and passing on that tradition. I realize it is more for the passing on of the traditions than the actual meal, and yes, thank you mom for making me eat one bite.

I also think about all the many New Years resolutions I've made. Some, I kept fairly well and others not so well. The many diet resolutions, yeah well... then there were the ones where I committed to improving my prayer times with the Lord, or with my scripture readings. Those usually lasted a bit longer than the diet ones but still didn't make it all year long.

So I've decided I am not going to make resolutions any more. Instead, on New Year's Day, I am going to spend my day thanking God for the blessings of the past year and praying for the future to come in the next year. I feel especially led this year to pray for the direction of our country, as well as for the many service men and women going through really hard times with so many back to back deployments. I also feel led to pray for the many many families going through financial difficulties and for the many children around the world without homes and families to love them. I pray today for the missionaries all around the world who live with very little to share the gospel of Christ and I challenge myself to find more opportunities this year to share the gospel here in my Jerusalem verses just on the mission field.

With all that said, Happy New Years to you all. May the Joy and Peace that only Christ can give overflow you all this day. And, If I was going to make a resolution. It would be to cherish every moment of this short life and make lots of whats below these babbling paragraphs.... memories...

Me and Molly heading down to the huge bonfire at Nana and Grandpa's house. She looks hungry for Smores!