First Easter

I will admit it, even though I'm 32 years old, I still get super excited about getting an Easter basket each year.  I think it's probably my favorite gift all year. I can still remember as a kid, waking up on Easter morning and immediately rolling over to peak on the floor to see if my basket was there waiting for me overflowing with goodies.  My mom, a.k.a. "The Easter Bunny," does the BEST job gathering all my favorite candy and the most thoughtful little gifts to fill up a basket year after year.  I've never been disappointed!

This years Easter baskets, even one for Westley.

Being a mom now, I wanted to pass on the same tradition to Westley.  Now granted, it will be years before he even realizes there is a basket that the "Easter bunny" has delivered. But I couldn't resist making up even a really simple one this year to start the tradition.  

Can't you see how excited he is about his first Easter basket!

The biggest lesson I learned on this holiday is that I need to appreciate every little face that West makes when I'm snapping away pictures, whether it's a smile or not.  As I took about fifty pictures of him with this basket, this one above was the best one.  I found myself starting to get frustrated that he would not smile.  Usually he is Mr. Smiley but today, the one day that I was desperate for a smile, he just wasn't in the mood.  I thought for the rest of my life with this little one, I need to enjoy capturing every facial expression he makes whether it's a smile or not.  

It was very special to be able to share this Easter holiday with both sides of our family.  Here are some of the memories captured during our day together.

Just the three of us.

West with Ouma and Grandaddy.  I discovered that in every picture
Grandaddy was staring at West!

West with Papaw, CeCe, and Aunt Laura.

I love this picture of three generations.

It was a great first Easter for Westley.  Can't wait to celebrate some more "first holidays" with family and friends throughout this next year.

Lucky in Love

I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be married to my very

best friend, Bradley. I almost can't remember what life was like

before I knew him.  We met our freshman year of college, so its crazy

to think that we have known each other for 13 years.  We've been

married for almost 8 of those years and we are SO glad that we waited

as long as we did to have kids.

Brad had been ready for quite some time to start a family but I'm the

one that kept putting it off. I wanted to travel to one more place, go

on one more mission trip before we introduced a new little one to the

family.  Really I was terrified of how much our life would change and

I kind of liked it being just the two of us.  We liked the freedom to

go to a movie, grab some dinner out, or enjoy a lazy day at home.

I'll admit I do REALLY miss those days terribly, but Westley has

already added so much joy and laughter to our little world that it's

worth missing those things.

I think one of my favorites things I am enjoying now that we are a

family of three, is watching Brad as a daddy with Westley.  Since day one,

Westley captured his heart and I absolutely love to watch those two

together.  I can already tell they are going to be best friends.

Brad is the best dad in the world and has gone above and beyond to 

help me in any way that I needed him to no matter the hour of the night.  

From the very start Brad has been able to soothe and get West to sleep 

better than anyone.  I think he already knows how much his daddy loves him

and he just likes to be near him!  Brad is always the one that puts

him down at night, that is their special time together.  It is one of

my favorite times of the day because I love to hear the sounds of

those two through the monitor.  The way Brad talks to him and all the

cute little nicknames he calls him is so sweet.  But my favorite is

hearing the songs that he sings to him, sometimes Broadway show tunes

or sometimes an old traditional hymn as he rocks him to sleep.

It's in those moments I realize how lucky I am.  I have been blessed to 

have a precious healthy baby boy and the most amazing man in my life 

to share these priceless moments.

The Mommy Club

One of my dear friends summed it up best when she became a mom.  She said, "It's like having a baby makes you a part of the cool club or something."  People talk to you that maybe didn't even acknowledge your existence before.  Having that little person in your arms at church, in a restaurant, or at Walmart makes you suddenly... popular!  I have had more conversations with complete strangers just because I now have a baby.  Maybe it's because people have something to talk to you about now or just the fact that Westley is so stinking cute no one wants to miss the opportunity to meet such a stud!

I'll admit it, I like being a part of this "Club" so much more than I thought I would.  It's the play dates with friends, messaging with friends on facebook from all stages of life, and learning how to coupon and shop consignment sales that have made this new adventure a whole lot of fun.  There's been this whole world out there that I did not know existed.  

Duck Duck Goose is one of those new worlds that I got to experience for the time this past week.  And I am a complete fan.  After only spending $110 on two seasons worth of clothes and toys for my little nugget, I'm ecstatic!  I was prepared for women pulling each other's hair over an outfit or gnashing of teeth over who was next in the check out line. But it was a completely enjoyable experience.  No waiting in line, mom's actually helping each other, and bags full of clothes that I didn't pay over $2.00 for any one item.  I'm a fan and am already plotting what clothes to sell and what shifts to work in the fall so I can be an early bird shopper.  My only regret, with such a simple concept that has exploded, why didn't I think of something like that?

So these few things are what has become my new world and I'm loving it!

New Job Title

Well, it's official.  I have a new job title, "Mommy."  I have made the decision not to return to work and to be a stay at home mom.  Wow, even typing those words it still hasn't quite set in.

When Westley came into the world on January 24th, I knew my life was going to change.  I knew to some extent  I wouldn't sleep as much, that I wouldn't have as much time to myself, and we had decided if he was an ugly baby that we were just going to embrace it.  But I had no idea the magnitude of how much my world was about to be turned upside down after meeting our Westley.

Over the last few weeks, I have had many sleepless nights, little to no time to myself, and most days have felt like Groundhog Day.  But my whole outlook on life and who I am and who I want to be, have radically changed. All because of this little nugget.....

He is pretty darn cute, isn't he?

So as the weeks of my maternity leave began to rapidly come to an end, I really began to wrestle with whether I should return back to work or not.  I just could not imagine leaving West for all day.  He does something new almost every day and I just didn't want to miss it.  I am good to go out for a few hours, but then I miss him terribly. So all day just seemed too impossible a task at this point and time.  But as I begin to pray about it, I just continued to hear God say, "do you trust ME?"  Taking this step to stay at home, will be a difficult one financially and will require trusting God with everything.  However, He has already begun to show Himself in such a real way that I knew taking this big leap of faith was the right thing to do.  

Making this decision to stay with West, I knew though that it would mean leaving a group of friends that I will dearly miss working with.  I have absolutely loved every minute being a part of the Groups Team and truly consider them all family.  Work never felt like work because of the fun-loving dynamic that was shared in anything that we did.  I feel honored and privileged to have been able to work under and learn from my boss, Art.  He truly is a man of God that understands the concept of God's grace and lives it out like no one I have ever been around.  I have never respected a boss more and have learned more than I imagined was possible through being a part of his team.    

And most of all, I am going to miss working with my husband.  We have had the unique opportunity of working together side by side (literally) for the past year and a half.  When Brad and I first found out that we were going to be working in the same ministry and that we would be sitting almost right beside each other, we just didn't think it was going to work. I mean 24/7 it would be us together and if you have been around us, we are constantly at each other about something.  But in time, we found that we really enjoyed getting to be a part of each other's day and were able to help and support each other when it was needed.  And really it was just nice to have my very best friend right around the corner from me.  

So the decision has been made. The news has been delivered and a new adventure begins.  I am excited, nervous, humbled, anxious, and so many other emotions.  But I believe Christine Caine summed it up best in a twitter that I read this week, "Life has seasons, stages, and phases.  For there to be anything new, old things have to end, & we have to let go of them."

The adventure continues...

 

My Favorite Faces

We have become "those parents" that we never thought we would be.  Thinking our little boy is the cutest and that every thing he does is the funniest thing ever.  But you know what, I'm okay with it, I'm proud of our little man and want to tell anyone who will listen about how great he really is.

Our little West does keep us entertained with all the faces that he makes. I am trying to take at least some pictures every few days to capture as much of this time while he is little because I can already tell that it goes by so quickly.  So I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you today.

This face has been my favorite from the beginning.  

We've got a little bit of a monkey face, but kind it's kind of scary, cute, right?

The side smirk is the best!

I do love how serious he can be.

My second favorite face, just complete relaxation after a full tummy.

Now this is just embarrassing, his Ouma was getting him ready for Easter.  Not sure if he likes it or not.

This expression was priceless and he's already learning bad habits from his daddy!

And that sweet smile that we just can't get enough of.

Never Say Never

I have learned very quickly in my life not to say the the words, "I'll never......"  I began to notice that every time I used that line, I ended up having to do what I said I would never do.  You would think the first time that happened I would have learned my lesson.  But then I began to notice a pattern from saying the following:

I never want to work with kids......I became a Children's Director for 3 years.
I never want to travel to do mission work....I've traveled to Thailand and China, led a team to South Africa three times, and even married a Pastor of Global and Local Missions.
I never want to have kids - Currently a brand new mom.

Let's just say I have decided to not use that phrase anymore, even though my life has been richer for living out each of those "I nevers."  I think so much of not wanting to do the above things was more about fear than anything else.  The fear of the unknown.  The fear of not being confident in each of the areas and possibly even failing.  But because I was challenged to face each of these fears, I am who I am today.  God used these areas of uncertainty in my life to mold me into who He truly desired me to be.  They were never meant to be something scary.  They were meant to help me open up my heart to love others more and to truly experience Christ's love and grace.

Being a new mom, I've surprised myself by how much I truly love it.  I think even the first few weeks Westley was here I wasn't sure what I thought about being a mom.  I knew I loved him, but not sure I loved my new role.  Granted I'm sure the lack of sleep played a huge part in that.  But over the last few weeks we have fallen into somewhat of a routine and I have accepted, embraced and fallen in love with being Westley's mommy!  I'm smitten, my heart just melts everytime that sweet smile spreads across his face at me.

I am finding that the more I fall in love with West the more I fall in love with my Jesus.  Because I understand His grace for me so much more.  It's in the moments when I'm trying to rock West to sleep and he fights me.  Squirming and crying in my arms, he's fighting the swaddle with all his might.  He thinks if he can get out it will be so much better. But I know it's what's best for him and that he will be so much happier if he would just trust me.  I truly think my Jesus experiences the same thing. He is trying to soothe me and tell me He's just trying to teach me something. And that if I would only trust Him, and rest in Him, I would be so much happier. He loves me so much and only wants the best for me.  

So I'm going to try really hard not to say NEVER again, but I know if I do, that it's just another lesson in life that God is wanting to use in my life to mold and shape me.

He's finally here

Brad and I sat around for months and talked about how excited we were to meet this little nugget and we were just ready for him to be here.  So on January 24th, he decided it was time to make his grand entrance into the world two weeks early from his due date.  He was born January 24, 2011 at 7:54 pm at 6 lbs 13 oz and 21 1/2 inches long.

After months of toiling over the perfect name, seeing that sweet face we knew for sure it was confirmed, Westley London.  We knew the middle name fairly soon into the pregnancy, once we found out it was a boy.  Bradley's favorite place in the whole world is London, and I loved the idea of using that as part of the name. So we settled on using London as the middle name.  But, the first name was our biggest challenge.  Westley came from wanting his name to be unique, yet sophisticated at the same time.  We toiled over numerous names but were never convinced any were the perfect fit.  A variation of Wes/Wesley/Weston was one I was pulling for from the beginning, but Brad wasn't a fan.  I continued to drop it in the mix every time we played the name game.  Once I convinced Brad I was up for any variation of the name, he used "Princess Bride," the movie to help inspire us to go with Westley.  And so our little boy became, Westley London.

So many friends and family told us you can't imagine loving anything so much so quickly. And over the last 10 weeks we are seeing how completely right that they were.  We are head over heels, smitten over this precious new addition to our family and love him a little bit more every day.  It's definitely already been an adventure and I am excited to share the rest of the journey together with you all.

And the story of Westley begins.....