Come on...a little peace and quiet please!!

So we have all had one long and tiring week this past week. It was full of high fever, an ear infection, diapers that literally made my Mom gag, sleeping LOTS during hours I should not have been, not eating, lots of crying, and we topped off the week with a rash. Ugh! What a week huh!??! I am so tired. Mom too. Although I have taken full advantage of the fact that she will hold me 24/7 when I am sick. Now that I am on the up swing, I can quickly turn it off and on when I need to be held. I will milk this puppy for ALL it's worth. And, truth be told, Mom's okay with it...she says I wont want her to hold me and cuddle me forever. However, I have this feeling that she will be wanting to cuddle me even when I am 30!

All I needed after a week of sick was some sound sleep. Mom cannot leave well enough alone and let a kid get his beauty sleep...I mean could you walk away from this cuteness?!?!




Ummmm...where am I and who are you?! Why am I awake? Please tell me I am not awake because you felt the need to flash a ridiculously bright light in my face while I was sleeping peacefully!??! Surely, you must have a better reason that that!



Okay, I am awake now, may as well make the most of it. Get me outta here!



OKay, so my sleep was interupted for good reason. I got to go to lunch and hang out with Grammy! She is SO fun!



Last week, before the sickness hit, we had a great time playing with Corbin Crocker. Poor Gracie (Corbins 2 year old sister) had two boys jackin with the bows in her hair! Sorry about that Grace! Here I am showing Corbin my best flexing pose...this will come in handy because like me, Corbin is no small man!:) We love you Corbs!

The Journey & Happy 9 Month B-day Matty!

So I was laying in bed the other night thinking. I do most "deep" thinking laying in bed when I should be sleeping. It really is a problem...

Anyway, I was thinking about lots of different things in life...the adoption, friendships, marriage, starting new companies, my salvation. I was thinking how all of these things are about a journey. I think so often, we are a people caught up in getting to a certain destination or outcome. We are a people who are obsessed with results. We do something to get something or somewhere. BUT, I believe that God truly works on the journey..along the way if you will (to quote my Pastor). So it begs the question, Have I woken up with joy, no matter my circumstances, and looked forward to what the journey of that day holds? The answer is no, not all the time. But I want to try. I have been praying lately that God would "restore to me the JOY of my salvation". Salvation is amazing. I have been so caught up in thinking about how huge it is that I have been SAVED! This salvation has allowed me to enter in to this incredible journey with My Creator. Too often Christians have sold people what I call a "golden ticket to heaven" theology. You know, if you say this prayer you will GET somewhere you want to be in the end - Heaven. But I think that misses the beauty. It misses the point. The point, I think, is the journey. This journey of following this Jesus that laid His very life down for me to be able have life. Jesus taught His disciples "along the way"...Oh how I want to be so focused on His face on my journey.

As I think about this adoption. Have I spent more days consumed with it "being over" rather than enjoying this journey with my son. Do I remember more about when he was 3 or 4 days old? His first tooth? The first time he crawled? etc... Or, has this journey been defined by the latest phone call with my lawyer? Well, I pray by His grace I am a person completely PRESENT. Present in whatever circumstances the journey may bring.

Let us all be present in our journey's today...Let us remember with standing stones in our minds and hearts the moments that have defined our journey...

ENJOY A LITTLE FLASHBACK...


Matty at 6 days old! What a journey Motherhood is.


Matty and Dad at 5 days old. The journey of Fatherhood has TOTALLY changed my husband! Beautiful how Jesus has used this in his life.

FLASH FORWARD...

A bunch of us got together over Christmas break...controlled and sweet chaos. Love you all!


Speaking of the journey...girls who have journeyed a long time with me. Love you all and LOVE YOUR BABIES!


Matthew giving us his best side...bottoms up! Way to smile Sue!


Malyn is DONE! Matthew trying to console her by holding her hand..smooth buddy! And Caden and Sue...still posing for the pap! Love it! and love you all!

Happy 2008...

from Matthew and Fam in his pretty MONOGRAMED Christmas outfit...too cute!

Our First Christmas!

So it has been a very long time since I have posted and a few of you have phoned in complaints...thanks for your interest friends. Below are 3 new posts in one night...enjoy!

We had a great Christmas! Brian's Mom and Eddie (AKA Grandpa) came and spent Christmas with us. It was SO great to have them. Matty was SO happy on Christmas and Christmas Eve. He totally skipped his naps on Christmas. This boy is such an extrovert that he just pushes himself to stay awake and hang out as long as there are lots of people around - paying attention to him of course. So, my family came on Christmas Eve (pics to come) and then we had a great Christmas morning at home.


The Fam on Christmas Morning


Matthew got this activity table from his Tia Tris and Uncle Tot - they sent it ALL the way from Australia. As you can see by the huge grin, it is a hit.


Mommy put this silly stocking on my head. I tried to eat all my gifts! YUM!


Matt's very favorite thing on Christmas was the screwdriver set Brians Mom gave Brian. Matthew was trying to climb it and was cracking up - really belly laughing. So funny the things they want to play with.


A few days before Christmas, we opened gifts with the Patchell's and the Miller's...here is Matthew in the middle of it all!

Who needs Christmas Dinner...

When you have all this YUMMY paper. Opening Christmas Gifts pretty much consisted of Matty eating lots of paper and ribbons...


Matthew meets his very first Shepherd...intense first introduction. And Mommy loved her new Nativity Set - thanks Babe!


Matthew chowin down...


Did he eat all that?!?! HMMMMM....


Enough with the gold paper...got to taste the silver! Between peek-a-boo with Christmas paper (like you see here - I swear he is under there)and snacking on the rest of the paper, we had LOTS of wet paper to clean up!


On Christmas afternoon, Matthew's biological Mother (Jasmine) and his sister Jalyssa came over to hang out and eat with us. It was wonderful having them here. Got lots of great pics like this one.

Do we have ourselves a little reader?!?!

So when I say the child is climbing things...I really mean climbing. Notice in the first photo his feet are OFF the ground. He loves to climb on this bookshelf and pull of EVERY book and frame...and candle he can get his hands on.

So he loves this activity so much that we began to wonder if we had an avid little reader on our hands...



Or maybe not..



In all seriousness, when he is in the middle of meltdown mode (as we call it) reading to him usually is the only thing that will calm him down. Not this time Papa! This Christmas book is seriously escalating the situation. Brian just gave up and joined in!