We are starting the morning out with her favorite breakfast! Pancakes!!

Kenley is turning 1!

I cant believe how fast this month has flown by! I am so excited for Kenley's birthday party but at the same time I am a little sad that my baby is turning 1! I even cried when the happy birthday song came on her personalized princess cd!

Her party is going to be so fun though! I am going all out with the crayon theme mainly by using tons of bright colors everywhere! And there will be a taco bar! I cant wait!!

Puppy Love

Tissue Pom Poms and Bows

The Pom Poms are a super easy Martha Stewart Craft! Her directions are actually easy to follow for this one! I did use 10 sheets of tissue instead of 8 to make them a bit fuller.

For the hair bows, Lauren has a little Bowdabara machine that we used to make a few of them but I made lots following Darby's tutorial too. One of the things that I did different was to tie the ribbons with string rather than wire. Also we covered the clip with ribbon too which makes the wax paper part unnecessary!

I also made a super cute non-birthday related hair bow that I am absolutely in love with! But I will have to reveal that another day!

What I've been up to...

Party prep! Christy came over yesterday and helped me make these
awesome tissue paper pom poms! It was such an easy craft! I would
totally make tons more if I knew where to put them! Then later last
night I went over to Laurens and we made hairbows for all the girls
who come to the party! I've been putting the finishing touches on the
bows today and I love how they turned out! I can't wait or her party!
It will be so much fun! Especially since so many out of town friends
are coming who I can't wait to see!

Teeth!

Here is a super short video of Kenley showing off her pearly whites!

Daddy was here!

Daddy came home this weekend for a quick visit. It was a long and rainy ride for him on the motorcycle but I appreciated him coming home so so much! It just feels right when he is home with us! Kenley wanted Daddy to hold her the whole weekend! I dont think he minded!

Here are some cute pictures of Daddy giving Kenley a bath.

How we like... Carrots!

Kenley really likes carrots and so do Brian and I. Lately, I have been making them sauteed with butter and parsley and they are so delicious! This is actually a really economical side dish too because a pound of organic carrots only costs .88 cents!

Buttered Carrots

1 pound carrots, peeled and sliced
1-2 tbsp butter
parsley for garnish

1. Place butter in a saute pan over medium heat.
2. Add carrots stirring every few minutes for 20-30 minutes or until carrots are soft and tender.
3. Sprinkle with parsley right before serving.

4th of July Family Pictures!

The fourth of July was Kenleys last first holiday other than her birthday. So of course she had 3 outfits for the day and 2 of them were Polo. Her daddy actually bought the two Polo ones for her! He knows me so well! Our Church had a Military Appreciation Sunday and thankfully Daddy was able to come home since he had a long weekend! All of the active duty military came in uniform. I love seeing my man in his blues! He is so handsome! Jim and Jenny came down for the weekend too so Jenny and I had to get an 11 weeks picture together! I am due January 21st and Jenny is due January 23rd! Jenny put some good pictures up on her blog too! I love the one of Kenley and David! He is such a ham!

Thankfully we took our family photo before church started! I was sure that Kenley would mess up her white dress while she was in the nursery. She stayed clean and instead she decided to spill spaghetti all over my dress during lunch!

We had a great 4th of July!

My Love

11 months old! (Official)

Our little Kenley decided that she wanted to fit as many firsts into this month as she could especially while her daddy was away. She started crawling but she still wants people to help her walk all around everywhere, she stopped liking baby food and prefers to feed herself small bites of regular food, she started clapping, she smacks her lips together to blow kisses and has become very talkative! She babbles Dada and Mama all day but I am not counting that as her first words since she doesn't really get that we are Dada and Mama. She is getting pretty close to saying bye bye though! Our sweet girl will be a year old so soon! Birthday party planning is on full force!

Simple Math

Morning Sickness + Husband Away + Stomach Flu + Active 11 month old = Exhausted Mommy

I promise I will be back soon! Things should start looking up soon since I only have 2 days left of the first trimester!

Prayer of Hannah and Birth Control

Prayer of Hannah is my favorite Christian Mom blog. It is written by a great group of Christian ladies and the best part is that they are all different so they all have something new to say on any particular topic. Often times when I am bored I will read through their old archives. Last night I came across their birth control posts and this link to Desiring God on Does the Bible permit birth control? It is a very good read for anyone who is married.

Obviously we were not using birth control after Kenley because we are excited and ready to expand our family. Unfortunately many people, especially at church, have given us odd reactions. After our Pastor announced our pregnancy and Jim and Jenny's pregnancy the congregation didn't seem to care. Obviously our close friends were really excited but for the most part I could tell that people were judging us because Kenley is only 11 months. After I left the sanctuary that morning the first thing someone said to me was "Isn't it a little soon?" I played it off and didn't say anything to respond but my honest reaction is No. It is not too soon. God did not make a mistake by blessing us with another child. His timing is perfect. ALL THE TIME! I was telling my friend Emma who is also pregnant that I want to make a shirt that says "Yes, it was on purpose."

So, what is our stance on birth control? Honestly when we first got married I went on the pill because that is what you do. I do not necessarily regret going on the pill but I regret that it was not a thought through decision. We just chose that because that is what everyone else I knew had done. I never had any problems being on the pill other than gaining weight. I wanted to go off the pill because I was tired of putting hormones into my body and I thought that since it took my parents so long to conceive me that it would probably take us a long time too. Little did we know that it would happen that first month off of the pill. I am thankful for the time that Brian and I were able to spend just the two of us. I am glad that we didn't have a baby right away. I know that the timing Kenley came along was perfect for OUR family. At this season in our lives we desire for God to grow our family and do not plan on using birth control. Our stance might change once Brian is done with MECEP and there will be times of deployments in our future, it might even change once the new baby comes... Kenley is so good that I think this one will give me a run for my money!

We want a big family. Sometimes we say we want to be like the Duggars. Most times I say that I want 5 and then to adopt. But honestly no matter how many kids we have it will not make us "more spiritual" no matter how many kids we adopt it will not make us "more spiritual". I worry about how easy it is for us to wear those things as badges of pride amongst fellow believers. May our desire be to bring God honor in whatever situation He gives us and not use it to make others feel not good enough if they choose a different path than ours. May we focus on teaching the children that we have about Christ. One of the main things that I have learned through this pregnancy is how easy it is to be critical of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ if they don't do things the way that we would have done them. It is so easy to be judgemental of people and this pregnancy was a good reminder of how it feels to be judged. Convicting!

So... thoughts? Let me hear what you think! You get extra credit for reading that whole long thing through!

Random picture, she looks so grown up!

I had my first doctor appointment for baby number two today! It took
the doctor a little while to find the heartbeat which had me a bit
worried but once he finally found it the little heartbeat was beating
strong at 170 beats per minute.... Perhaps a sister for Kenley?

We have great house news! We found renters who want to buy our house!
Praise the LORD!! Right now we are looking into transferring our loan
over to them. What an amazing blessing! I love our house, it was our
first home but it will be such a relief to not have to worry about our
house while we live in WA!

Our computer is acting up again so I need to take it back to the
repair place and maybe then I can post a "real" blog update with
"real" pictures! I have a little video of Kenley to post where she is
showing off her teeth too!

Oh, my due date is January 21st and I have an ultrasound to confirm
the due date on August 9th! I am thinking that I want to attempt a
VBAC.... Any readers have any input on VBAC's good or bad?

I hope everyone had a wonderful fourth of July weekend!

Guess what?