willa jo

Recently I had the privilege to meet and take some pictures of miss Willa Jo. I did her mom's maternity session a little while back. Willa Jo is SWEET. She wasn't too happy about taking pictures until we went outside. Then she calmed right down. Thanks Nick and Kellie and I hope you enjoy your sneak peak.

feet

picture credit

I never realized how nice it was to wake up every morning without aches and pains. Never really appreciated good heath. Especially didn't appreciate my feet. That is until now.

About a month and a half ago my feet started hurting. BAD. I'd wake up in the morning and as soon as I'd step down tons and tons of pain would cause me to barely be able to walk. This was super annoying. I dreaded getting up and getting Lydia each morning to feed her only because I knew the pain I was about to feel. Can I please just stay in bed all day?? If she started crying in the middle of the night I'd lay in bed and hope that Patrick would get up and go help her before I had to.

After a month plus of pain I decided to go to the doctor. I went to my general family doctor and she did some blood work to rule out any chances of rheumatoid arthritis (I've also been having general joint pains...mostly in my right arm and hand). She also sent me to a podiatrist. I went yesterday and here is what she concluded.

I have plantar fasciitis. She gave me a cortisone shot in each foot to reduce the inflammation and hopefully bring pain relief. I still have to ice my feet and stretch them often (these were things I had already been doing). These shots hurt like POOP! I cried. I hate shots. This week has been filled with needles (they took blood from me and gave Lydia her vaccinations on Tuesday and then Wednesday I get two shots in my feet) and I pretty much hate it. READY for next week!
She also thinks I may have some back problems that are causing the pain in my toes. My toes have felt like they are constantly drawn in. I kept thinking I just need to load up on bananas and get tons of potassium in me. She put me on a muscle relaxer to loosen all these up. We checked to make sure all of these treatments are okay while breastfeeding and they are. So far my feet feel 70% better. There is still a little discomfort but I think it takes a few days for the cortisone shots to fully take effect. Same goes with the muscle relaxers...after a few days of these things I'm sure I'll be feeling good.

I have learned a few things from this mild trial in my life.
1. My hope and joy should not and and ultimately cannot come from my health. The joy of the Lord is my only strength.
2. I tend to be selfish and not very selfless. When my feet would hurt all I was thinking about was myself. I didn't care if Patrick had to wake up early to go to work and stand on his feet all day. My feet were hurting and I wanted him to have to get up. I have since repented to him and to the Lord. Asking forgiveness and help from the Lord. I need grace to be able to consider others more important than myself. I need power from the Holy Spirit to die to my own wants and serve others the way Christ served and continues to serve us.
3. Those who suffer well really do bring great glory to God. I kept thinking about Chip Stam. A hero of the faith who recently died of cancer. He truly relied on the Lord for his strength and joy. In the midst of pain and a killing cancer this man loved the Lord. I also think of Job who when practically everything was taken from him he still wouldn't curse the Lord. I pray that as I am tried with more and more things I would become well seasoned and bring great joy to the Lord.
4. Sufferings help us to long for a better place. I'm thankful that this is not my ultimate home. Praise the Lord that there is a land soon to come where those who have their faith in Christ will suffer no more. I love my life here on earth. The Lord has been very kind to me in giving me a loving husband, sweet baby, and great family and friends. These wont last though. They are all temporary. Praise God I have a lasting hope in Him.
5. I hate shots

6 mo

This past weekend we celebrated Patrick's graduation. WE also celebrated Lydia's 1/2 year mark. The girl is 6 months old. HARD TO BELIEVE.



I took her to the dr today for her 6 mo check up. They are pleased with how she is growing and developing.
She is 27 in long (90th percentile).
She weighs 15lbs 15 oz (50th percentile).
I can't remember how big her head is but it's in the 40th percentile... a good step up from the 7th percentile last time. Her head is finally rounding out.



A week or two ago Patrick and I both started commenting how we felt like she grew up a ton over night. She is starting to do things that really make her seem like a BIG girl. Well you know... a relatively big girl. She is still only 6 months old.



She is starting to sit up better with little to no assistance. I sat her outside Sunday to take some pictures (I missed doing it on her actual six month day) and she held the sitting position for a good amount of time. She eventually face planted into the grass or toppled over to one side or the other. She is making progress though.



She is an extremely happy baby. She gives smiles and giggles freely. She has started grabbing my face and attacking it with a open mouth. I like to think she is giving me kisses. She usually attacks my chin. I think she likes the hardness of it on her gums. She goes after Patrick's nose because his chin is too rough from his beard. It often leaves my face covered in slobber but I'm okay with that.



She has been eating solid food for about a month now and is rockin it. She has eaten butternut squash, sweet potatoes, avocados, bananas, and spinach. She didn't so much care for the spinach with out it being mixed with sweet potatoes...it had a gritty texture. I did appreciate the regularity of bowels that came along with spinach. Only eating it once made her go three days in a row. That's been rare these days.

Her schedule hasn't changed much. I have recently dropped a feeding (the 8 oclock). Her day now looks like this:
7:30 wake up and nurse
8:30 down for nap
11:00 wake up eat solid and nurse
12:30-12:45 down for nap
2:30 wake up and nurse
4:00-4:15 down for nap
6:00 wake up eat solid and nurse
8:00 down for night
10:00 nurse and right back to bed

This picture reminds me so much of Patrick's baby pictures

reason to celebrate

This Friday Patrick graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary!!! We are excited. We used the last few days as a time to celebrate. Thursday we had a reception at the President's Home. Friday he graduated and then we went to lunch with his family and part of mine. Saturday we had a party with friends and family. We had a reason to celebrate.

I am very proud of Patrick for graduating from SBTS. I am proud of him because he has held many roles while being a full time student and he has been great in all of them.
He started as a fiance. Half way through his first semester became a married man. He then became the husband to a newly pregnant me who was sick sick sick. Then he became a daddy. He has done all these things while taking full course loads (of really hard classes), being involved in church and working a full time job. By the good grace of our God he has been able to do all these things and do them well.

I praise the Lord for Patrick. He has given him an exceptional ability to do many things at one time. If you know Patrick personally you know he is always doing something. He recently quoted Benjamin Franklin on his blog. The quote describes Patrick life well. "Lose no time: Be always employ’d in something useful: cut off all unnecessary action."

Patrick, Lydia and I are very blessed to have you as the man in our lives! You are a sweet husband and a very loving father. You love your girls well and we are so thankful for you. Congrats on graduating from Southern. We are excited to have you a little less busy this summer but also can't wait to see what's next.

summa time

It's feeling more like Summer here. We've spent the majority of this week with temperatures hanging out around 90. Warm weather gets me excited about spending time outside with the kiddos. I sat out on the front porch rocking Lydia and watching our neighbors. Sweet times... minus the fact that our neighbors starting fighting and the guy threw his bike off the porch...that wasn't fun.

My mom came up to visit this week. Lydia was asleep while I took these two pictures of her with my sister's kids.


Patrick is playing softball this summer for a team from our bro-in-law's work. They had their first game Thursday night and got WHOPPED. My sister and I took the kids. Even though the other team beat them pretty bad, it was fun to go and cheer on our hubs. After the game we went and got DQ...ah sweet summa time.

Tillman was very sad that his daddy was leaving. I am the cruel aunt who takes pictures of him crying.


While we waited to go to the park we sat out on the porch and I snapped a few pictures.



some times you have to trap a little rascal so you can take a picture of his sister


and for baseball

sunshine

mm hm/ nh nh

Sometimes... a lot of times when I ask Patrick a question he answers with a sound that is really hard to distinguish. I always end up asking him to either say yes or no because I can't tell what he is saying.

p.s. we came home and our neighbors (who just moved in this last week) had a scare crow and a snowman in their yard. I really wanted to take a picture of it. As soon as I was walking outside with the camera... the guy pulled up to the house. I felt too bad to walk out where he could possibly see me. I haven't officially met the guy. Don't want to make a bad impression. Any way it was a funny sight. We are glad to be their neighbor.