Pictures from my phone

I just figured out how to send pictures from my phone to the internet. Thank you Verizon...for once. Anyway, what I love about phone pictures is that you usually always have your phone with you, so you can capture some great moments. And my phone has a surprisingly good camera on it. I'm happy with it anyway. These pics are some of my favorite of all time!

We'll start with some Mary ones because those are obviously the cutest! For Mary's purity I made a little change to this pic:


Pretty eyes:


I don't know why I love this one so much, she's just really pretty. And I think that was one of the days she was happy in her first three months!


This is my fav all time pic of the two of us I think. I'm not looking my best, but she's awesome:


haha:


Here is my friend Kristen feeding the camels at the creation museum. She's with a bunch of kids, that's the part I like. She actually pushed them out of the way to get to the camel...


JK about the pushing out of the way. You'd think after 3 years of marriage you'd come to expect things like this, but he still catches me off guard. This is in a store in Maine. He tapped me on the shoulder and when I turned around this is what I saw... I probably should expect more of this when I make him come shopping with me when he'd rather be hiking. I was 6 months preggo though, so I needed him for support!


And finally...the best picture. I've kept it for almost 2 years because it makes me laugh every time. Ethan at 5 months:

7 months

Mary is 7 months tomorrow. I took some pictures a little early for her 7 month page in her scrapbook. I love her blue little eyes! She has been doing really well lately. She can sit on her own, though not for very long, and she's not always the sturdiest of people. She'll randomly throw herself backwards.
She also tried finger foods for the first time two days ago. She does pretty good with it! If I give her a little stick of toast she actually gets it in her mouth. I tried giving her little pieces, but she doesn't have the coordination to get them into her mouth yet. I went back and forth on that polo too, does she look like a boy in it? Since our car seat and stroller have a blue pattern I always think that people think she's a boy. So I try to dress her extra girly if we go out ;) Which has been a ton lately. I think when we get back from Gatlinburg next week I'm going to just spend a week in the house and lounge!
And finally, one of the parenting sites I read was talking about how ultimately our goal in parenting is to train our children that they can someday leave us. I thought this was 1. sad, and 2. a good goal to have. I have already had to do some hard things as a parent, but I think they were worth it. Like letting Mary learn to fall asleep on her own. It was hard, she would cry, I would stand by the door with my hand on the knob. But I'm so glad I spent a few months letting her do that. Since she was four months old she NEVER cries. By never I mean on a normal day. When she isn't feeling well she'll get fussy, but in general she is so happy. When I put her in her crib to go to sleep she talks for a few minutes and is out.
At one point I was thinking, it's just not worth it. I thought that training her to sleep was too hard, but I'm so glad I stuck it out. I think parenting will be this way a lot. We decide on rules for her, but she doesn't know them yet, so training will be hard. But once she does know the rules and boundaries, how much better will it be?!? If we can be consistent in training I know that the rewards will come. And someday she will be well trained enough to live independently from us. In the time between now and then we will do our best to instill moral character (most importantly) and knowledge of many other things. Here's my awesome daughter at 7 months:

Georgia came to visit.

That's right...the whole state! We had some family visitors from Georgia this weekend. They came up to surprise my mom for her birthday. It was so great to see them and my mom was REALLY surprised! We will miss you guys! Every time they leave I tell myself we should move to Atlanta:(
We were waiting at Larosas on Friday afternoon to surprise my mom:

Aunt Patty holding Mary Mary:

Four generations!

I promise Cara is cracking up here, not crying:

Mary getting some attention from Aunt Kathy:

Cute baby, coming through:

Babies trying to escape!

Go reds!

Bike ride!

Daddy took Mary on her first bike ride!





Here is one I thought was cute. I've been trying to get a good close up hand picture, where her hand is in focus, but you can see her in the background, but she just moves too fast for me to get it in focus!

And finally, she LOVED playing with the bag from the wipes refill. There's probably a warning on there that says, "keep out of reach of children." oh well

Sick and Happy

It's odd how happy Mary is when she's sick. She had a really runny nose and a cough that lasted about 5 days. I called the doctor and talked to them when she sounded really congested and was breathing heavy. I told them all her symptoms and they asked if she had a fever - no - is she happy - YES! She's been peppier than normal lately. Wow, I didn't really think peppier was going to be a word, but spell check isn't saying anything! Anyway, I took some pictures that I thought I'd put up. I think they're pretty funny, but maybe my sense of humor is warped by the fact that the only person I talk to all day knows one word: dadadadadadadadadadadaaaaaaaaaaagggggg.

We made it!

Yesterday at our friend's house we were looking at the passage in Deuteronomy 6 that talks about the greatest commandment: love God with everything you have. And one point that our friend made was the part right after the greatest commandment:

"When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."

God brought the Israelites out of slavery, like they were slaves to people and he brings them to this place that they did nothing to earn and gives it to them. It would be like taking someone out of a concentration camp and giving them a house and a job in the suburbs of America. I hope that's not a crude example, I think it's a fair one.

Now, this applies to my situation in a lot of ways. First, it puts our 'suffering' with Mary the first few months into perspective. That was not really suffering compared to what some people have gone through. But also, today as she was splashing and laughing in the bathtub it occurred to me that we made it through that. Ian and I constantly repeated to ourselves that it wouldn't last forever and it was true! I think even as I would say those words to myself I didn't really believe it.

So anyway, I felt the Lord rejoicing with me at that realization earlier and I wanted to remember him publicly. I wont forget the One who brought me through the crap of my life to redeem me and make me whole! At first I think we BOTH could still imagine our lives without her, and relish the thought. Now we are both at the point where we couldn't even imagine what life would be like without our little princess. Since God is love, we have him to thank for the change of heart ;)

ps - we have been LOVING this song lately: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J95rAr0gOFU

At the park!

Here are some pictures from our trip to the park on the summery day yesterday!
Here's Mary practically falling out of the backpack ;)

Happy Girl:

She's going to be a tree hugger like her mama.

Eating the bar. It's the only thing she could access to put in her mouth.

Her chubby leg hanging out:

Mary and Daddy:

Mary and Mommy:

Soooooo pretty:

Daddy is funny

Guess who's idea this was??? I think Ian has more fun giving Mary a bath than she does splashing in it. Usually I'll be out finishing up the dishes or something and I'll hear Ian in there "bombing" her with water.

I know this is what he's doing because I'll hear things like, "Watch out Mary! It's going to get you!" ('it' being the little water toy that squirts water) and "oh no! oh no! Gotcha gotcha gotcha!"

I also thought I'd share another funny moment with Ian. It's totally unrelated, but we were talking the other day about how we have like 7 weddings to go to this summer. I am a HUGE fan of weddings. Dancing, friends (sometimes...), free food! What's not to like???? Ian on the other hand, is a little less enthusiastic. He's always trying to get out of them. He seriously begs me/whines not to go. One time he even stomped his foot. Yeah, he's 29. Well the other day I was asking him about this one wedding and if we would attend. He came up with this:
Ian - "Megan, seriously I think I have a soccer game on that day"
Me - "Ian that seriously does not get you out of going to __________'s wedding!"
Ian - "Are you telling me that if Marvin Lewis got invited to a wedding on game day that he should skip the game??????"

Touche. NOT. That was so funny I laughed for like an hour. The best part was that Ian was SO serious about it. Like he firmly believes that his argument is a good one. I will try not to squash his man-pride because I really do believe that coaching the high school boys is a great thing, but it's no professional sport. Sorry baby cakes. And it's a moo point (you know...like a cows opinion;)) anyway because I think Marvin SHOULD go to a wedding even if it's on game day.