A Few Recent Pictures

My mom and dad are teaching me to love books already!

Hey mom, do you think I can put it in my mouth?

Here I am in my terrific flip diaper cover and my bumgenius babylegs!

This is what I look like when I let my daddy pick out my clothes. I don't always match, but I sure am cute!


And here's a little story starring our two boys.

"Hey, Huck, what's that you've got there?"

"This? This is my Kong toy. I like to chew on it."

"I bet we can both play with it! How about you let me chew on it, too?"

A Christmas Preview

A little holiday preview...

Doesn't Huck look good with antlers?

One year ago...

I've been reflecting today on how much our lives have changed in the past year. One year ago today I was teaching kindergarten at Faulkner Academy. Mike had just finished up five years of working at New Horizons and was beginning work as a therapist in Kokomo. And unbeknownst to us, Abraham was being knit together in my womb.

God has provided for our little family in numerous ways since last August. Here are just a few.

1. Mike has a job where he is respected and treated as a professional. He is enjoying his work as a therapist working with adolescent boys. We were challenged in April when he was laid off for a short time, but we were blessed when he was called back to work after only 12 hours of being unemployed. An added bonus is that he was called back with full-time status, allowing him to take advantage of the benefits and insurance, which has given me the freedom to stay home with Abraham.

2. I was able to return to work at Marion Community Schools. After a rather tumultuous beginning to the 2008-2009 school year in Marion, it became apparent that they had reduced the number of teachers by a few too many. I was able to return to MCS and teach kindergarten at Southeast Elementary School with a great group of teachers. It was a difficult decision to leave the charter school, but I knew that I wanted to be in a place where I had adequate resources and support to educate my students. We also knew that we wanted to start a family, and MCS offered great insurance and an accumulation of my sick days that would allow us to do so! What we didn't know was that we would be adding to our little family before the end of that school year!

3. We have been immeasurably blessed with the birth of our dear little son, Abraham. Becoming parents is better than we ever had imagined. Mike and I have now ventured together down a new path of parenting, and we are enjoying it so much! I am loving being a mommy, and enjoying learning new skills like cloth diapering, breastfeeding, and babywearing. :)

4. We have seen several dear friends and family members start new lives together. My cousin Claire and her husband Aaron in December, our friends Joel and Meredith in June, my baby sister Rebekah and her husband Josh also in June, and our friend Roberto will marry his beautiful bride Maryjo in just a few more days! We are so blessed to be able witness and be a part of these joyous unions. Congratulations, dear ones!

5. My sister Jennifer and her husband Matt also added Samuel to their family one week after Abraham was born. We look forward to seeing our boys grow and change and become friends throughout the coming years!

To sum it all up, I would not have believed you if you had told me a year ago today that I would be a stay-at-home-momma with my sweet son Abraham. While I do miss school and my students and I worry about if we will be okay financially, we are trusting God to provide for us and I am cherishing this time of being a full-time mommy.

Here is the "wow, a lot can happen in a year" cake. You knew there had to be a cake, right?

Just loving my daddy!

Why My Dad is Great
by Abraham

My daddy is so great! Here he is teaching me how to be a Colts fan!
Don't worry, we'll be more enthusiastic when it's not just a preseason game.


I just love to look at my daddy!
He is good at making funny faces and making me smile.

And he even loves cloth diapers! Look at what a pro my daddy is at snappi-ing a prefold on me! I try not to wiggle around too much for him when he is putting a diaper on me. What a great dad I have!

a note from Huck

So yesterday Mom and Dad did something really strange. First, they told me to go to my den. Being the good and obedient dog that I am, I complied.

But then they started taking out our furniture! Dad and his friend Jonathan carried the couches out to the front porch.


Mom put Abraham in his swing. She had both of us locked up now!

Then Dad and Jonathan started bringing all the big things wrapped in plastic into the house. Mmmm, I thought, I hope I get to chew up that plastic!



Mom and Dad unwrapped all the big things and THREW AWAY THE PLASTIC! I didn't get to chew any of it! This is what our living room looks like now.


There is also a nice big rug in the middle of the floor now, that Mom and Dad got just for ME! I get to lay on the comfy rug now. The only bad news is that they aren't letting me cuddle on the furniture. Don't worry, I'm sure I can convince them later. :)

Meeting Cousin Samuel

At the beginning of June Mike was a groomsman in Joel and Meredith's wedding. So Abraham got to go on his first roadtrip. The wedding was in Connecticut. Visit Tim and Jessica's blog to see photos from the wedding. After the wedding, we got to go to New Hampshire to see Jennifer and Matt and their new baby Samuel, who was born exactly one week after Abraham.


When we arrived, Abraham was snoozing, but Samuel was ready to go eat at La Carreta.
Here is Jennifer with her nephew Abraham and her son Samuel!

This is a special treat for you. You can come up with your own storyline for the following pictures! The babies' expressions are so fun, and we've enjoyed creating dialogue for them, so I'm sure you will too!








Precious little baby toes.


Some tummy time.

Two happy mommies with their sweet babies.

The cousins get a good look at each other.

Abraham's first few days at home

Well, this entry is long overdue, but I decided to go ahead and post the pictures anyway.

Here is Abraham on his way home from the hospital!

Being carried in from the garage.

Getting introduced to Huck.
Mike is explaining some things to Huck, who is just wanting to lick and sniff this new thing mom and dad brought home for him.

Huck is delighted with the new baby!

Abraham thinks, "Here's an idea, Mom, I will be content all night as long as you hold me. But if you put me down, I will scream and cry and make the doggie bark!"

Josh and Huck are feeling pretty tired.
Our first family walk!
Everyone just loves when Kristi comes to visit!
I think this expression says it all!

Abraham's Birth

It really all started on Saturday, April 25th, when I started having contractions. They started out seven to eight minutes apart, and a few hours later were four to five minutes apart. And they were the doubled-over can't talk kind. We called the doctor who told us we should probably meet him at the hospital in a couple hours, or sooner if the contractions got stronger and closer together. So we got everything together, I practiced some deep breathing and relaxation, and then the contractions stopped. Fast forward to Thursday, April 30th. I was at school. I had just brought my kiddies back from lunch and we were starting math baskets when I felt a trickle and wondered if it was amniotic fluid. I left my class with Mrs. Trout and called the doctor. At first they told me to go straight to the hospital. But then they decided I could come into their office to get checked. So I called Mike, and he left Kokomo and met me at the doctor's office.

Dr. Seward confirmed that it most likely was amniotic fluid, and told us that we could go home, take our time (but not too much time) getting any last minute things together (and decide if I wanted to pack my fuzzy slippers) and then head to the hospital! Here are the very last pregnant pictures from that afternoon.


And here I am at the hospital! Still pregnant!

Hooked up to monitors and maybe pitocin, but I don't really remember... Everything falls into two categories in my mind: the Connie period and the Ruth period. They were our two nurses during the labor process. I think this was the Ruth period. I was really apprehensive about getting pitocin, because I'd heard such awful things about it, so I decided to have them give me some stadol to "take the edge off." Well, it turns out that stadol is not my friend. I hated it, it made me feel completely out of control and loopy. I don't even think it made my contractions feel different at all; it just made me feel sleepy and loopy. I think more because of my fear of pitocin and my hatred of stadol and because the girl next door was getting one, I ended up getting an epidural sometime around 8:00 or 9:00. I remember Dr. Seward (knowing I hadn't wanted an epidural) saying something about how it probably wasn't going to be much longer, which sounded like a ridiculous statement to me at that time. I was pretty shocked when they announced I was ready to push a short time later. We started pushing around 10:00, and little baby Reeves was born at 10:56 pm. I even got to help pull the baby out and hold him immediately.

And here he is!

All cleaned up with Dr. Seward.