Our Prayer for You

Jackson,

We pray that you will be a God-fearing man, that you’ll be humble, kind, and compassionate. That you will turn to God in times of need, and give back to others however you can. I pray that in this life you’ll find peace and comfort in His promises. We pray that the Lord will be your north star that guides your life above all else.

Today we made a promise that we would be the best example of God’s love that we can possibly be for you. We promise to lean on God’s Grace when we don’t know the answers, and as a family, we’ll grow together and learn and trust that we’ll never walk this life alone.

 

 

 

One Half of A Year Old

My goodness Jackson, how you’ve changed since the day we met you for the very first time. How has it been 6 whole months since that day? It feels like yesterday, and yet the proof that it’s been 6 months sits right in front of us. You’re not a helpless newborn anymore, you’re laughing and smiling, rolling all over, and you’ve even taken your first bites of real food. You’re turning into a regular bouncing, loving, baby boy and you weigh a solid 16.5 lbs. I can’t even acknowledge the fact that in just 6 more quick months, we’ll be celebrating your first birthday. The months are much too short.

Today your daddy sent me a picture of you just after we brought you home from the hospital. In his message, he said “WHO is this baby?” You look so different!

A little throwback:

Today you like:

·         Kahla. You try to grab at her and you adore when she gives you kisses.

·         Bananas.

·         Rolling

·         Sleeping on your tummy.

·         Trying to sit on your own!

·         Bedtime and bath time.

·         Drooling.

·         Being sung to.

·         When I say “mamamamama” a hundred times. I’m driving everyone else crazy, but I don’t care, because you grin SO BIG.

·         Being read to.

·         Chewing on everything, and then some.

·         Grabbing at everything, including our faces, and my hair J

You prefer to avoid:

·         NAPS.

Jackson, you MELT OUR HEARTS. Every morning I can’t wait to see your smiling face, and every evening I hate to say goodnight. You’ve single-handedly multiplied the love in our hearts exponentially.  Here’s to the next 6 months, and beyond.

XOXO

Behind the Selfie

People, if you think getting a dog and a baby to cooperate for a selfie is easy, you're insane. This is only a fraction of the 'selfies' we took before getting a single decent one. Enjoy.

Fest Weekend

One of many this fall, I presume. Dayton is a fantastic place in the fall. The weather is beautiful, the fests are many, and the colors are amazing. This is what I’ve observed anyway, from my one year experience.

I would like to include a disclaimer here. While I love all the fests here in Dayton, fall in Colorado simply cannot be beaten. Dayton, you just can’t compete with the traditional, colorful October drive deep into the mountains - sorry.

Back to Dayton.

Two weeks ago (sorry with the late post- such is working life with a baby!) we attended Sweet Corn Fest on Saturday and Bacon Fest on Sunday. That’s right, bacon. These were two incredibly different experiences.

Corn Fest: Amazing. Plenty of open space to wander and check out great booths full of crafts and delicious food. The list of what we ate is embarrassing. The list includes, but is not limited to:

·         Corn on the cob (duh)

·         Watermelon

·         Smothered potato crisps

·          Cheesesteak tacos

·         Corn on the cob (again… because it’s corn fest)

·         Fudge

I think I gained 10 pounds just writing that. Still recovering.

Tyler loves corn. You may or may not know this about him. He finds it at every festival or carnival, and even has some growing in our backyard. This fest was the jackpot for him. We had a great time and Jackson happily strolled along and picnicked with us along the way.

 

Happy camper

 

 

What IS that face?

 

Dream on, buddy.

 

"Ok, really guys?"

 

Fast forward to Sunday. Dayton’s inaugural Bacon Fest. Sounds amazing, right? WRONG.

A good friend Dan, and his ridiculously adorable 1 year old, Kennedy (mamma was out of town), met us for the ‘fun’. They were by far the best part of the day. Upon rolling up, we realized there was a line to get in. What? Ok, fine.

Once we were finally through the gate, we quickly realize this was the definition of poor planning. I’ll try to spare you all the annoying details but here are some important contributing factors:

·         WAY too many people like bacon. They did not prepare for this many people.

·         The space was way, way too small.

·         ‘Bacon bucks’ had to be purchased to buy food from any of the vendors.

·         ‘Bacon bucks’ could not be exchanged for your cash back in the event you did not use them.

The result was at least 45 minute-long lines at every vendor, shoulder-to-shoulder traffic, and hot, miserable, annoyed people. In order to just get our ‘bacon bucks’ spent, we split up, got in lines, spent everything we had, ate, and got the heck out of there. Never again. (Thanks Dan, for sticking it out with us!) It was all so annoying we took exactly ONE picture:

 

That's right, folks. 1 bacon buck and a piece of bacon.

It wasn’t a complete waste though, as we ended the afternoon with chocolate covered bacon. Oh yea.

Disclaimer no. 2: I’ve been diligent about getting my runs in ever since in an effort to NOT have a heart attack.

XOXO

The Emergency Poop Kit

As you know, Tyler watches Jackson 3 days a week. He’s really fantastic in his role as “stay at home daddy” on those days. They have their routine down, and Tyler packs J man and his bottle up when needed, and they head out to run errands, or whatever activity the day holds for them.

Notice I said Tyler packs up Jackson and “a bottle”? When I say Jackson and a bottle, I mean he puts Jackson in his carseat, prepares a bottle, and throws it in there with him. Then off they go. If you’re a mom, right about now you’re freaking out. WHERE IS THE DIAPER BAG?! Or at least that was my reaction when they met me for lunch last week.

No diaper bag. No extra outfit. No diapers or wipes. This is every mom’s worst nightmare.

“Tyler, what if he poops?! What if he has a blow-out, what is your plan?”

“He won’t, he’s fine. We always do this”.

“You WHAT?!”

I let my annoyance pass in order to have a happy lunch with my baby and my baby daddy. I fully intended on marching straight home after work and putting together a “manly diaper bag” (or backpack).

Guess who pooped? Right in the middle of lunch, red-faced and grunty, my poor baby was going to be stuck sitting in his own mess for the duration of our date.

Thank goodness, there was no blow out. I am the tiniest bit grateful this happened. It was God’s way of allowing me the ultimate “I told you so moment”. We finished up our lunch and I sent Tyler straight home to change our smelly baby.

Guess where he went? Home Depot. Seriously. Stinky baby and (by default) stinky daddy out for a stinky stroll around Home Depot. I feel bad for both the innocent bystanders and for Jackson. (Although, Tyler swears Jackson didn’t care). He probably didn’t, but it still makes me cringe.

Needless to say, Tyler now has an emergency poop kit permanently in his car. Diapers? Check. Wipes? Check. Extra outfit and burp cloth? Check.

Hopefully we don’t have to have another stinky baby/stinky daddy incident any time soon.

Just Be Happy

As parents in this digital age, we face a whole new and different set of challenges than our parents faced. Today, in every avenue, it is hard to not compare your life to others’.

Pinterest means I have ridiculous ‘to-do’ lists with projects I’ll never finish and meals I’ll never make. How’s that for feeling inadequate? On Facebook and Instagram we are blasted with everyone’s updates, life happenings, adorable babies, travels, and accomplishments. Overall, it’s fantastic. I get to see what all of my friends and family around the world are up to, and feel close even when we are far.

In all of these great updates, I sometimes forget that people tend to post the best parts of their life. Very rarely do we see the downs or the rough days that inevitably we all go through, those projects we just never got to, or the cleaning that never got done. No one wants to share that stuff (including myself). So we must take a step back and remember it’s not always rainbows and butterflies for everyone.

During an evening run last night, I couldn’t stop thinking about why I compare myself to others.  Constantly I am asking myself if I am doing enough. The beautiful evening, the sunset, and the fresh air helped clear my mind. It comes down to happiness. Is Jackson happy? Tyler? Kahla? Am I happy? Yes. We are doing the right thing for our family and making the best decisions we can each day for OUR family. We are doing the best we can. Aren’t we all?

It’s time for me to put the Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest down more often, and spend more quiet hours soaking up every minute of my family. Tomorrow when I get home, I’ll be leaving my phone by the door. Enough trying to keep up with it all. Jackson, Tyler and Kahla deserve 100% of me in those few precious hours we have together each night.  

One Year Later

It’s been one year to the day since we shuttled 5 suitcases, 2 backpacks, 1 carry-on, and a dog to the Ramstein airport, saying goodbye to the country we’d called home for the last 3.5 years.

Tears streamed as we said goodbye to friends and coworkers who had become family, and a bittersweet calm settled over me as we took off and the base slowly disappeared behind us. So much to look forward to. So much we’ll miss.

Thinking back on that day, it feels both like it was only just yesterday, and like it was a lifetime ago. So much has changed in one year. Leaving, we had no idea just how much our lives were about to change.

Since then, we’ve taken leaps of faith, we’ve met new friends, we’ve grown as a family, we’ve started new careers and dived into school. We’ve learned that new adventures wait around every corner, whether we are a young, newly married couple travelling Europe, or settling into family life with a brand new baby. We thrive on these adventures.

Every now and then I find myself daydreaming about being back in Germany. Reliving our long walks through open fields and villages. Having one (or two) too many drinks at fests, and spending late nights and holidays with incredible friends. Bundled up at Christmas markets with a brand new german shepherd puppy in one arm, hot spiced wine in the other hand. These are the moments that consumed us, these are the adventures we will forever hold in our hearts.

As we continue this journey, we don’t know where we’ll be next year at this time, and I love that. We’ll follow this road wherever it takes us, through the ups and the downs, and we’ll hold on to each other tight as we navigate this life.

Each year seems to go more quickly than the last. This year as the leaves begin to change and the air becomes more crisp, we’ll be grateful for where we’ve been, and look forward to where we’re headed.