5 Months!

Happy 5 months to Elsa!

(once again, a few days late)

14 lbs 4 oz.

26 1/2 inches long

This month:

She met Scott, Jill and Matthew. Her first play date went well. Matthew shared his book and they chewed it together while Jill tried to read.

She started raising her arms up in the air. One day I was dancing around her while she was in her exersaucer and she joined me and put her hands in the air and smiled really big. So sweet.

She also started saying her "m's." Maybe a Mama is in the works?

This month was a HUGE month for us. Shane has been to at least one interview a week in the past 6 weeks. He was offered 3 jobs last week. They all had positive aspects and negative aspects, but we felt the most peace towards one. I am so proud of Shane for his patience, trust in God, and perseverance. I know it has been a discouraging process, but we knew this trial would one day end, and the lessons learned in the process were worth it. We grew together through it all.

I love being home with Elsa! Her personality is developing more and more every day! She is so sweet and happy! We have a lot of fun together. I have my bored and lonely days considering the amount of time she sleeps, but I'm learning how to make the most out of nap times. I've been running 5-6 times a week for the past 4 months, but this week I started P90X during Elsa's mid morning nap. We'll see how long this lasts. :)

I have never been good with change in the past, but marriage and parenthood has been WONDERFUL! Shane and Elsa are huge blessings and I could not be more thankful!

4 Months

I'm a little late with this one. Whoops.

At her 4 month appointment she:

weighed 13 lbs 12 oz (50th percentile)

and was 26 1/4 in long (98th percentile)

Elsa is growing fast! This past month she has started laughing, found her toes and likes to suck on them, reaches for and grabs toys, took her first plane, and started sleeping through the night. Big month! It only took a few nights of ignoring her at 4 am to teach her to hold off until 6 or 7 am. Not too bad.

A couple weeks ago, our friends from Wilmington came in for a visit. We are glad they were able to stop by and meet Elsa. Thanks y'all!

She is rolling all over the place now. She sleeps on her tummy usually, but I went in and found her sound asleep on her back, with one eye open after fighting sleep for 15 minutes.

We put a big quilt down on the floor (Thank you Cori and Sonia) and she rolls and scoots around grabbing toys...or pulling Daddy's hair.

We went to the park the other day. She's not quite big enough for the swing, but it made for some cute pictures.

Yesterday we drove to Greensboro to watch a friend of Shane's run in a 40-Mile Ultra marathon. He and Shane did it together a few years ago, but they didn't train too much for it, so John wanted to attempt it again after training for a few months. He did fantastic! I don't have any pictures of the day, but it was fun and great to see John and Jess!

Cape Cod

This past weekend, Shane and I met up with Mr. K, Mrs. K, Lauren, and Garin in Cape Cod. It was fun to see L and G's house and town, their church, and the Coast Guard base. I forgot my camera when we went to the base, but maybe L will post some pictures on her blog one of these days. ;)

Uncle G got Elsa a cute turtle. She sleeps with it at night now.

Papa and Elsa took a nap together

She woke up really happy!

Then we went to the Coast Guard base and saw the Helicopter G flies.

Saturday we went out on the boat and did some wake boarding, water skiing, tubing, and knee boarding.

Elsa had a blast...

Saturday and Sunday night we played games. Banana Grams and Boggle.

Sunday afternoon a few of us took naps and then G, L, Shane and I headed down to the canal for a run and then went to the coast and saw their beach front rental. Very nice!

Thanks for having us L and G!

Labor Day

We headed to Monroe for Labor Day, another short 1 day visit. It was relaxing and weather was beautiful, until it was time to head home. Our ride home consisted of heavy rain and winds. A bit scary, but thank goodness for Rain-X.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Tyler came over to meet Elsa.

We went down to the pond and fed the fish.

Also, Elsa has been rolling over like crazy since Monday. Nap time has turned into rolling time. She sleeps for 15 or 20 minutes and then just rolls back and forth in her crib, smiling. Very cute.

Here is a video of her rolling from her back to her tummy.

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. "