Happy 3 Months!

Weight: 12 lbs 13 oz

Length: 24 inches

Elsa's new trick

This morning Shane and I were up playing with Elsa before church. She has been rolling from her back to her side a lot this week. I'm guilting of not putting her on her tummy much at all, except while she is sleeping, (which is going against 2 things the doctors say to do...whoops) so this morning I put her on her tummy to play. She was so happy, but seemed to get frustrated after a while. I had a feeling she was going to roll over, so I got the video camera...and I caught it! The first roll! Go Elsa!

Here it is! She has been all smiles this morning!

Forgiveness

I read this book a few years back when I was in college. I was going through a lot and these couple pages stood out to me at that time in my life. I wanted to share it with everyone. I'm sure all of us have been hurt/hurt someone at some point(s) in our lives. This is a wonderful perspective of what forgiveness looks like. It is such a beautiful, selfless lesson taught to us by our Savior.

"Okay- now for a hard step (as if the others have been easy). A real step of courage and will. We must forgive those who hurt us. The reason is simple: Bitterness and unforgiveness set their hooks deep in our hearts; they are chains that hold us captive to the wounds and the messages of those wounds. Until you forgive, you remain their prisoner. Paul warns us that unforgiveness and bitterness can wreck our lives and the lives of others (Eph. 4:31, Heb. 12:15). We have to let it all go.

"Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Col. 3:13

Now-listen carefully. Forgiveness is a choice. It is not a feeling- don't try and feel forgiving. It is an act of the will. "Don't wait to forgive until you feel like forgiving." wrote Neil Anderson. "You will never get there. Feelings take time to heal after the choice to forgive is made." We allow God to bring the hurt up from our past, for "if your forgiveness doesn't visit the emotional core of your life, it will be incomplete," said Anderson. We acknowledge that it hurt, that it mattered, and we choose to extent forgiveness to our fathers, out mothers, those who hurt us. This is not saying, "It didn't really matter"; it is not saying, "I probably deserved part of it anyway." Forgiveness says, "It was wrong. Very wrong. It mattered, hurt me deeply. And I release you. I give you to God."

It might help to remember that those who hurt you were also deeply wounded themselves. They were broken hearts, broken when they were young, and they fell captive to the Enemy. They were in fact pawns in his hands. This doesn't absolve them of the choices they made, the things they did. It just helps us to let them go- to realize that they were shattered souls themselves, used by our true Enemy in his war. "

Family in town

This past weekend Mrs. K, Mr. K, Meghan and Eli came into town for a visit. It was a nice weekend. A little cramped in the apartment, but we made it fun. Between feeding Elsa and her naps, we did manage to get out a little bit.

Meghan arrived a few hours before everyone else. It was great to get some time with her. We took Elsa on a run and then chatted until the rest of the crew got into town.

Saturday morning Shane, Meghan, Eli and I went on a run while Grannie and Papa watched Elsa.

Meghan and Mrs. K had a good time dressing Elsa up throughout the weekend. We grabbed lunch at Sweet Tomatoes Saturday afternoon, so of course had to look nice for the outing.

Saturday evening we all went out to the Arboretum near NC State. It was a really nice evening, minus the mosquitos.

On Sunday, Shane had to work 6-3 and had his break at 10, so we all skipped church so that we could have breakfast with him on his break. After he left to go back to work, the rest of us headed to the pool.

Thanks for coming into town! It was great to see y'all. Lauren and Garin, we missed you, but we look forward to seeing you in a month!

Gram

September 29, 1912-August 25, 2006

5 years ago today my Gram passed away. I remember so many details leading up to that day, and I remember that day so well. I think about her almost daily. I wish she had met Shane, and now Elsa. I feel like Shane is missing a part of me. She was such a huge part of my life and I am so thankful for that. I know my mom will be as much apart of Elsa's life as Gram was of mine. She impacted a lot of people.

This passage was read at her funeral.

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

Because the Lord has anointed me

To bring good news to the afflicted;

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to captives

And freedom to prisoners;

To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord

And the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn,

To grant those who mourn in

Zion,

Giving them a garland instead of

ashes,

The oil of gladness instead of

mourning,

The mantle of praise instead of a

spirit of fainting.

So they will be called oaks of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He

may be glorified."

Isaiah 61:1-3

I miss her, but I am so thankful that she is in heaven praising God, that she is in no pain, and that she's able to dance and sing. I praise God for that. This is not our home.

Month 2

Happy 2 months to Elsa!

She is smiling and talking all the time. It's so fun to get her up in the morning. She wakes up so happy, even though she's hungry. She smiles and smiles, eats, smiles, gets her diaper changed, smiles, and then we play on her mobile gym for a while and have great conversation.

Her stats at her 2 month appointment were:

87% length

27% head

63% weight

She received 3 shots in her legs and was as perfect as a 2 month old patient could be. One little squeak and one tear. The doctor was very impressed, which is always encouraging. I love being a mommy.

My cousin, Alison, was baptized this past weekend and I wanted to say how excited I am. What an amazing decision. Alison, I love you so much!

My sister in law and brother in law received their next orders and we are excited that they will be closer!

We recently found out that we will be heading up to Cape Cod to visit family at the end of September. Elsa's first plane ride. We're excited to see family and for Aunt L to meet Elsa.

Last week Shane, David and I drove up to Charlottesville, VA for the day to meet our new niece, Kate. The whole way home Elsa was talking about how jealous she was of Kate's full head of hair.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Will climbs all over Matt. He doesn't care if he's awake or asleep, busy or not.

Elsa and Kate.

We all went on a walk in Monticello Park after breakfast. It was beautiful!

I asked Will to lay down on the floor next to Elsa and he accidentally laid on her arm, so she was a little upset...Whoops.

Thanks for having us Matt and Becca! It was great to see everyone!

We caught Elsa smiling, so here it is. It's not the biggest smile we've seen out of her, but it's a good one.

One of my mom's friends has a mother that knits, and she has knit Elsa some really cute sweaters, booties and hats that will fit her come winter time. She recently sent this hat in the next picture. So sweet! Even though it's 100 degrees outside, I still had to go ahead and snap a picture of her with it on. I'll be printing this off and sending it to her soon.

We've had so much fun with her. We both have taken her out on jogs in her jogging stroller. I try to go most mornings before it gets too hot. I don't know if I've ever been so excited about Fall. She usually stays awake most of the time and kicks and throws her arms in the air.

'Til next time...

Shh, don't tell the doctors...

I've been trying for the past couple weeks to get Elsa to sleep in her crib (on her back) for her naps during the day, but she doesn't seem to like it. She'll sleep in her boppy, on the couch, in her swing, on her play mat, in her infant seat, on our bed, but not in her crib. She could be dead asleep and I put her in her crib and she is wide-eyed the instant she hits the mattress. Well, today, I tried again, and I let her scream for 10 minutes hoping that she would eventually stop and fall back asleep. Nope. So I went in, rocked her for a little while and then put her back in on her tummy (shame on me), and she's been asleep ever since. It may be because she's on her tummy, OR because she was up every 2 hours eating last night and is exhausted. Not too sure. :) I'm so proud of our little girl. She's growing up so fast.

I told Shane this morning that I didn't really get any sleep because she was eating every 2 hours (she's been sleeping 5 hours at a time at night since she was 2 or 3 weeks old) and he looked at her and said, "Well, she must be growing because she looks older and bigger than she did when we put her to bed last night." Silly daddy.