yay!

adelle is cutting her first teeth! it's the 2 front bottom teeth. no wonder she's been sticking her tongue out so much the past couple of days. i would too if some foreign sensation started breaking through my gums...

yay! they grow up TOO fast.

...

i'm inspired by Susan Boyle.



This is the kick in the pants a lot of people need...

the butterfly.

I learned something new today and I wanted to share. I was thinking a lot about Easter and why we really celebrate it versus how we celebrate, so I wanted to find some of the symbolism behind things that often represent Easter. Some things are pretty obvious. Eggs, chicks, bunnies, flowers... all represent new life, just as Spring itself does -- the new life that is promised to all of us when our bodies and spirits are reunited in perfect form because of that Spring morning when Christ rose from the tomb after being crucified and then lying in a tomb for 3 days.

In my search for meaning behind all of the Easter bunny and egg decorating hype, I found a great explanation as to why we sometimes see the butterfly in the mix with everything else that may represent Spring and Easter. First we have the caterpillar who walks along the Earth, representing Christ's life on Earth. Then there is the cocoon stage, representing Christ's crucifixion and burial -- when he was lain in a tomb. Then comes the butterfly emerging from the cocoon transformed into a magnificent creature, just as Christ was raised from the dead--resurrected with a glorified body. I really enjoyed learning about this and hope it will give me an extra reminder of the blessing and promise that we will be resurrected into perfect bodies because Christ first was resurrected to set the way.

Happy Easter everyone!

month 5 so far... so fun!

i have a cute baby and she takes baths. and does other cute stuff too.

Last Thursday was our first attempt to give Adelle rice cereal. She may have gotten some swallowed, but if that's the case, it was definitely on accident. She must not be quite ready because she kept pushing it out with her tongue. We'll try again within the next week and see how she does. She has definitely been interested in food that we eat and seems to want more than just the formula, so we're just waiting for everything to fall in line.



On Sunday we gave Adelle in her little bath and decided to actually take pictures this time. Luke likes to just pour the water down her face "to help her get used to it," thus the following picture.



Adelle doesn't like to smile at the camera, but she'll smile at her mama... :) Last night I was sitting next to her and playing with her upside down... I thought this was a pretty cute one.



Enjoy!

fonts/headers.

a big thank you goes out to chelsea for reminding me of this awesome font website. Thanks to it, I have a new blog header. I would add pictures like I used to all the time, but I don't have any of me, Luke and Adelle all together (I know, what!?!?) so until then I don't want to add pictures. Anyway, I also approve of that website.

On a somewhat related note, I decided to email the creator of the 365 cards blog and asked if she would like a new header for the site, so here's what I came up with. She wanted me to use the same colors/font that was already there, so I did have those guidelines. Enjoy.

Be Thou My Vision

This is one of my favorite songs... a very old Irish hymn, from around the 700s. It really is beautiful and if you haven't heard it before, I suggest finding a recording on youtube or something. It's been in my head all evening.

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best thought by day or by night
Waking or sleeping Thy presence my light
Be thou my wisdom and Thou my true word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father, I , Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one
Riches I heed not nor man's emptly praise
Thou mine inheritance now and always
Thou and thou only first in my heart
High King of heaven my treasure Thou are
High King of heaven my victory won
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's Sun
Heart of my own heart whatever befall
Still be my vision O Ruler of all

it's official!

Adelle has a super cute dimple on her left cheek :)

i'm losing my hair... and my vision is shady...

Well, just the hair loss part is true, but that should give a few people a nice little giggle (it's a reference to something that you could call a guilty pleasure from the teen years). I am officially losing my hair from the whole post-pregnancy normalizing stage of life. I'm not breastfeeding (a very long TMI type of personal story that I will not be sharing) and my body is finally ... slowly ... getting back to normal. I didn't think it would bother me, but mentally, when I run my hands through my hair, only a couple of hairs at the most should come out, right? It's strange and kind of uncomfortable seeing more than that.

On another note, my sister Lori (the one who has taken the gorgeous pictures of Adelle) is starting a photography business and I got to design the header for her blog and her watermark for when she posts on the web. It was a lot of fun and I'm excited to see what she does with her exploding talent. I've linked to it on the top sidebar, so take a look if you like (and remember, she's just starting, which honestly really impresses me considering the quality of pictures she is taking).

Milestone!!!

Adelle has been trying to laugh for a long time. She'd do little fake coughs and smile, she'd open her mouth really big and squeal... today she laughed for the first time for real! She had the dirtiest diaper I have ever had to change (it was so full it leaked) and so when she was just in her diaper, I did raspberries on her stomach and she laughed so hard every time! Of course then I had to take her into the other room so Luke could see and she did it again :) What a fun milestone! Adelle is just getting too big way too fast! She'll be 4 months old in 9 days. I can't believe it.