Date Nights/Family Nights

I've been telling Jeremy since the beginning of the year that I want to have more "date nights." These don't have to be 'get all fancy and spend $40 on dinner' dates, just fun things to do when we hang out together (like when Paige goes to bed and we end up just sitting on the couch watching TV). A lot of people have 'pinned' different blogs with suggestions for dates and I'm always inspired by them because they are so simple! So I told Jeremy that I wanted to create our own 'Date Night Ideas.' We came up with some great suggestions, but you'll notice that some of them include 'family night ideas' too. I also have been convicted lately of doing more things with Paige, rather than just her playing on the floor while the TV is on and Jeremy and I are playing with our phones (don't judge us!). We wanted to keep as many of these as cheap as possible, but did try to come up with a few that would be actual date nights with a babysitter.

Without further ado, here is our list (in no particular order):
1. Go to Bub's Burgers in Carmel
2. Go to IMA (We've lived here 4 years and still haven't been!)
3. Take Paige to the Zoo on a weeknight (they have all types of concerts throughout the summer)
4. Have a candle-light dinner after Paige goes to bed
5. Play board games
6. Play Wii
7. Go to an Indians game
8. Go walking at Fort Harrison
9. Sundae's (our favorite local Ice Cream Place)
10. Popcorn and movie night
11. Make chocolate chip cookies together
12. Plan our 10-year anniversary trip (yes this is 5 years down the road, but why not?! Make a list of places we want to go and start researching!)
13. Buy a map and mark where we have lived, visited, and where we want to go
14. Make a bucket list
15. Go to the dollar theater
16. Donate blood (this one scares the crap out of me, but Jeremy has been encouraging me to do it for a long time!) - Check 6-9-12
17. Volunteer at a shelter
18. Play game at Dave & Busters (or any arcade type place)
19. Get dessert at The Melting Pot
20. Go to Goodwill and pick out an outfit for each other
21. Go to a driving range
22. Go to a pottery place
23. Watch a TV series together
24. Go play a board game at a coffee shop.
25. Go walking on the Canal with Paige.
26. Take an art class together.
27. Play Racquet Ball at LA Fitness
28. Play Tennis at our local recreational/pool area
29. Go to a Pacers game downtown.
30. Rearrange a room.
31. Take Mac to board ripple Dog Park with Paige and let him go crazy.
32. Go to Whole Foods and get a slice of pizza.
33. Buy a 2 player Game App and play together.
34. Go to Saltire and buy a new board game and play it that night.

Do you have any other suggestions???

Tubes

Tonight as I put Paige to bed I held her for a few extra minutes just amazed at what God has blessed me with.

Tomorrow Paige goes in to get tubes in her ears. She has had 5 ear infections since February! Now I know most of you are going to say, 'oh, your life will be so much better' or 'it's a very quick and easy procedure'... did you feel that way going into the day your child was going to get tubes? I know it's going to better for her, I know she 'hopefully' won't have pain any more, I know they should help with all the ear infections, but guess what, she's my baby and she's going to have a surgery! So tonight my prayer goes something like this:

God, please be with the doctors as they place the tubes in Paige's ears. Please guide their hands quickly and efficiently and let this not be 'just another surgery' to them. Please be with Paige and help her not to be scared when they take her away from us, give her strength and comfort that you are there with her and that we are just outside waiting for her. Please be with Jeremy and I as we trust you and wait for Paige to come back into our arms. Amen.

Dear Grandpa

Dear Grandpa, Oh where to begin! So much has happen in the last 7 years since you went Home. The first thing I had to get through which was probably the hardest for me was my college graduation. I know you tried so hard to stay strong and wanted to be there for me, but I also know that you were in a much better place. I wish you could've been there. After graduation I moved up to Nebraska to go to Grad school at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. That place is windy! In January of 2006 Damon and Mandy welcomed their first child, a baby boy named Michael Solomon. He's 6 now and such an amazing boy, he's so funny and so smart! During this time frame Justin and Betsy moved from San Fransisco to Oklahoma. I think Justin wanted to be closer to the family down there and he was trying to finish up some college classes too. During my time in grad school I got married! Jeremy is such a wonderful man and you would've loved him! I wanted him to meet you before you left but we just never had a good time to come down, of course now any time would've been a good time. We got married in March of 2007, I wish you could've been there. Things in Nebraska were good for the most part, we liked the city we were in and had a great family that helped take care of us when we needed them. They hosted a graduation party for me when I graduated. I graduated in May of 2008, I wish you could've been there. A couple days after graduation we made the move back to Indiana and had to live with Damon and Mandy for about a month, or should I say got to :). About the same time that we moved, Justin and Betsy made a move to Seattle! Can you believe it... they are so far away now. They now have two "four-legged" kids who are so cute! You'd like them, their names are Dixie and Brody (but I can never remember which one is which!) Justin is finishing up college and graduating in December and Betsy is tearing it up with her artwork out there! After we finally got a place in Indianapolis I started working at Hobby Lobby and Jeremy started serving, we both just needed to get jobs right away. We got our first little one in October of 2008, don't worry, it was just a puppy! He's so adorable and fun, his name is Mac and he loves grandma! I bet he would've loved you too, he's the perfect size dog for you and he's so loyal! Damon and Mandy welcomed their 2nd baby in August of 2008, Micah Lynn, she has the prettiest blue eyes you've ever seen! She is a beautiful little girl and she's so funny. Her and Solomon are definitely 2 peas in a pod! Damon and Mandy are doing well, Damon is working hard as a youth pastor and Mandy is fabulous teacher, I'm sure you guys could share a few teaching stories! Mom and Dad are doing great, they are wonderful parents! They have a big camper that you would be super proud of and they camp out multiple times through out the summer. They even drove the camper all the way to Nebraska for my gradation! They go to Disney World almost every year now :) And finally, Jeremy and I had Paige in August of last year. She's amazing, I wish you could've been there. I remember you constantly, from the American flag pin on my purse, to the old car driving down the street, to the random person smoking a pipe on a nice spring day. You are everywhere. I love you and miss you.

The dreaded doctor....

So let's go back to February 3rd, 2012. I was so excited to have the day off. I had just finished working 10 hour days Mon-Thurs so I wouldn't have to go downtown on Friday and deal with Super Bowl traffic. I had lots to do on Friday because I was throwing a baby shower for a good friend on Saturday and hadn't really done much at all! So I wake up to Paige (as usual) and I get her changed and I feed her. After that she started coughing so much! I was planning to take her to day care for a few hours that day so I could get stuff done, but her cough really started to worry me. So I called the doctor and got an appointment scheduled and that's when we found out she had an ear infection in her left ear. Poor baby... but other than the cough I wouldn't have even thought about taking her to the doctor because she was acting perfectly normal! So we got the antibiotic and went back 2 weeks later for a check-up.

February 17th was the next check-up. At this appointment the doctor thought she heard something in her lungs. So this time we had to do a breathing treatment (incredibly hard to do by yourself with a six month old who can't sit still!) and she wanted to get a chest X-ray as well :(. All that came back was that now she had an ear infection in both ears... so on to antibiotic #2 and a follow-up appointment in 7 days.

February 23rd... yay! No more ear infection!!

February 29th... 6-month check up (not sure why we couldn't combine the 23rd and 29th appointments, but whatever)... Ear infection is back, on to antibiotic #3 and another check-up in 2 weeks.

March 12th... yay! No more ear infection!!

March 27th... Paige had been coughing again for the previous 2 days, to the point where she had to sleep in her car seat next to the bed because it's the only way she wouldn't cough all through the night - and the only way I could get any sleep. So we took her to the doctor again... and guess what... another double ear infection! So on to antibiotic #4, and since this is her fourth one we got referred to the ENT. The office called and the ENT appointment was set for April 11th so we didn't need to schedule a check-up with our doctor's office.

April 9th... The 4th antibiotic didn't seem to do it's job because Paige was still coughing pretty bad towards the end of the anitbiotic. Sunday night Jeremy was getting a little worried about all the coughing and I agreed. We called the doctor's office Monday morning to ask if we should wait until our ENT appointment or come in for some more medicine. We went ahead and took her in and this time she had to get a shot :(! Not only 1 shot, but I had to take her back on the 10th for a follow-up shot!

Today (April 11th)... 3:10 appointment with the ENT... pretty sure we will end up getting tubes, please just take a moment to pray for our visit and that all goes well. I'm not worried about getting her tubes if that is what's best for her, I just want to stop taking her to the doctor all the time! :)

Through all this Paige has been an amazing little girl! Other than the coughing and occasional grabbing of her ears you wouldn't even know she's sick! She is such a happy baby!

I don't want to miss a thing...

I used to think that I wanted to adopt a 3 or 4 year old because I didn't want to do the "baby" phase. I didn't want to do the diapers, I didn't want to deal with the spit up, I didn't want to deal with the midnight feedings, and no sleep... but now, I can't imagine missing this part!

I love love love love my baby girl. I love her big brown eyes (that look just like daddy's eyes), I love the smile on her face when she sees me after I've been at work all day, I love her baby smell, I love her little feet, I love when she falls asleep on me, I love when she reaches her arms up because she wants me to pick her up, I love watching her sleep, I love picking out cute little outfits for her to wear, I love watching her discover a new toy for the first time, I love feeding her (even though it's messy sometimes!)... seriously I could keep going!

Over the last week Paige has gotten much stronger sitting up. She can't sit up on her own, but if we sit her down she can stay there without falling over, it's so fun! She seems so close to getting ready to crawl, if we lay her on her belly she can turn in a full 360 degrees and she can go backwards! She's attempted to get up on her knees and you can see that look on her face like "oh, I should try to go forward, but I just can't yet." She's now had oatmeal, rice, bananas, peaches, and green beans! She's doing great with all of them! We just finished up some antibiotics for an ear infection and heading back to the doctor today for a check up, but she's doing great, you really couldn't even tell she was sick! She's still sleeping great, occasionally she will wake up in the middle of the night, cry for about 15 sec then go back to sleep and I can usually get an extra 30-60 min in the morning if I just put the pacifier back in her mouth.

Okay, enough bragging about my baby... I just love her so much...

1 Year

1 year; 52 weeks; 365 days; 8,760 hours; 525,600 minutes; 31,536,000 seconds.

1 year ago today 2 little lines on a stick changed everything! I've mentioned before about the struggles I had with pregnancy. Long story short, Jeremy and I kept going back and forth about when we wanted to start having kids. A lot of our friends had started getting pregnant and having kids and I started to think something was wrong with me. I would get jealous and angry sometimes wondering why I hadn't gotten pregnant and then I would realize that I just wanted to be pregnant because my friends were pregnant. Once I finally gave the decision to God and said "okay, it's on your time" I started feeling better.
I still remember the day like it was yesterday. I was driving to work eating a bagel with peanut butter and a banana. About have way through the banana I felt like I was going to throw up and I thought, oh that's weird. As I went throughout the day I debated whether or not to take a pregnancy test. I didn't want to take it because I didn't want to be disappointed again but at the same time I was scared to take it because I thought it might be positive this time. During the day a dear friend at work sent me the lyrics to a song:
But the Voice of Truth tells me a different story
The Voice of Truth says do not be afraid
And the Voice of Truth says this is for my glory
I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth

I knew at that moment that I had to take a pregnancy test that day. I drove home and stopped at Wal-Mart on the way. I walked in the front door and went straight to the bathroom. Jeremy was home but I didn't tell him what I was doing. I peed on the stick and after a minute I saw the one definite line, then very faintly I thought I could make out a second line, and I was like WHAT?!?!?! I ran into the computer room where Jeremy was and showed him and I was like "is there a second line there?!?" We just kind of stared at it for a second and then he held me and ask "how do you feel?" In that moment I felt every emotion possible! I promptly took a second test just to make sure, then we celebrated that night at my favorite mexican restaurant Cancun. And then I took a third test in the morning :)

I started loving my little girl the instant I saw that second line and I love her more now than I ever thought I could!

That day changed everything, and I wouldn't change that day for anything!

Sleep

I love how everyone tells you during your pregnancy that you'll never sleep again. Anytime you complain about sleep they just say "get used to it" or "oh wait it will get worse." I don't know if I just have the most awesome baby in the world or what but my sleep is way better now than it was during pregnancy... But let's rewind... okay so the first 6 weeks the sleep was not so good, I really didn't imagine being able to sleep more than 4-5 hours until Paige was about 3 or 4 months old. But my kid is a great sleeper! We didn't try any sleep training or anything like that, she just started sleeping an extra hour on her own each week. I am so blessed! I know there will still be nights when she will wake me up for some reason, but for now I'm taking advantage of every night by going to bed shortly after she does (yes, sometimes this means an 8:30 bedtime for me, but I'm okay with that!)!

I love love love love my little girl!! She is developing so quickly and it is so much fun! I love seeing her grow everyday and give me new faces everyday. I love it when I pick her from daycare and she stares at me for a couple seconds then gets this huge grin on her face!! I love that she is "talking" to us now, the girl loves to make noises!!

And currently my favorite thing... I love when Jeremy is holding her and playing with her! He is such an amazing dad, and he shows his love to her every time he sees her. I love when he's changing her diaper and I can hear him talking to her :)

It's just such a blessing to have an amazing husband and daughter! I love my family!!