embrace the camera: June 30th

This past weekend we spent in Chicago with some great friends of ours the Moody's.  I'll post more about our trip soon but here's a couple that we took of just Tyler and I.  Boy do I love this guy.....

He is so perfect for me....

I couldn't ask for anyone better to live this life with.....

So thankful for you, Tyler!

now head over to Emily's blog and embrace the camera too!!

thursday.

pretty creative title huh?  I know, you wish you had my awesome "thinking up fabulous titles" skills :)

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So today I had my first doctor's appointment.  10 weeks.  New doctor.  First words he said to me were, "you sure had me worried, didn't think that baby would make it this far."  SO, SO thankful beyond words for that little beating heart. 

I asked lots of questions and he answered them pretty much to my liking :) haha.  We talked about my history, chances of recurrence and the fact that there are no preventative measures that can be taken that have been research based.  Taking a daily aspirin hasn't been shown to help lower blood pressure, just causes more problems so we aren't going that route.  I will follow a normal schedule of doctor visits (every 4 weeks until 30 weeks, then every 2 weeks for a month and then every week after that, if I make it that far), unless things start to look abnormal with my blood pressure or anything else. 

My ultimate goal is to make it to 34 weeks.  A "34 weeker" would be nice a big and healthy :)  Amazing how your perspective changes after having a preemie. 

I did learn something new about hellp syndrome though.  He said that they are now finding out that hellp can be detected as starting out as early as the 1st trimester and then shows itself usually later on (in my case at 31 weeks 5 days)  Just from what I've told him, he believes that my water breaking at 24 weeks is related or was caused by something being wrong with the placenta from the hellp and for some reason the hellp waited another 7 weeks to happen (thankfully!).

He did give me hope by telling me he just had a lady give birth (full term even!) who had a history of hellp and she had a completely normal pregnancy!  Yay, I'm praying for that!

Oh AND he did give me an option to check into a V-Bac if I want to.  We'll see. 

So I was told about these shirts from another preemie momma friend of mine and I should totally get one of 'em!  

....and I promise to NEVER complain! :)

(unfortunately that is one thing that really bothered me after Lincoln was born prematurely, hearing women complain when they were nearing their due date.  Yes I understand it's completely different circumstances but next time know your audience)  Ok rant over :)

And now I'll leave you all with a video of Lincoln's awesome dance moves.  Tyler was singing his "Linc-y doodle" song that he made up after Lincoln was born and Lincoln was dancin' away!  Enjoy!  (Lyrics to the song are below, hehe)

(sang to the tune of yankee doodle, yes my hubby is an amazing song writer, be jealous)
Linc-y doodle when to town
riding in his carseat
stuck the pacifier in his mouth
and then he fell asleep
Linc-y doodle pick him up!
Linc-y doodle, manly
Mind your mommy and your dad
and with Kona be friend-ly!

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We are headed to Chicago for the weekend, meeting some friends of ours, the Moody's, from Wichita!  We are SO excited to see them!  And excited for a fun weekend in Chi-town.  

Hope you all have a great weekend!  I'll be back next week with pictures!

Is It Worth It???

 My friend Kendra posted THIS post about adoption and it's amazing.  All too often we make adoption about ourselves and why WE can't adopt or it's not the right timing etc.  How about we start making it about THEM and instead of asking why should we? ask why not?  What holding YOU back?  We all need to check our priorities and the reasons why more of us aren't saying yes to adoption.  Like she said, "I do NOT believe everyone is called to adopt or SHOULD. . . but I DO believe it CANNOT be based on comfort--material, financial, or things just being fine and comfortable the way they are thank-you-very-much"  




Watch the video and then go read her post and THEN give a good reason why YOU can't adopt :)

Easiest. Dinner. EVER

Lately I've been feeling pretty decent throughout the days (as long as I stay on top of eating every hour or so) and then around supper time I get SICK.  Major Nausea.  Yuck.  So I've just come to the conclusion that dinners around here are low key and lots of calling Tyler to pick something up on his way home from work.  So while I was feeling good during the day I threw this crock pot meal together and it was ready as soon as I started feeling not so great.  Perfect timing.  I got the recipe from over HERE.

Here's what you'll need:

- Bag of frozen Chicken Breast Tenderloins (2.5-3lb bag)
- 8 oz block of cream cheese (don't use Fat Free! 1/3 less fat or regular is fine)
- Can of Black or Pinto (I had pinto on hand so that's what I used) Beans, drained & rinsed.
- Can of Corn, drained.
- Can of Rotel

Directions:
Put frozen chicken in the crock pot.
Put Cream cheese on top of the chicken.
Dump in the Black Beans (make sure they are drained & rinsed!!!)
Dump in the drained corn.
Dump in the Rotel,

Cover & cook in your Crock Pot on low for 6-8 hours.
Every 2 hours, I stir the ingredients.

You can shred the chicken when it is done, or just leave it as tenderloins.

This is what it looks like after 6 hours:

I turned the crock pot off & let it sit for about 30-45 minutes.
It is a little soupy, but letting it sit causes it to not be as soupy.

Serve over rice (the rice absorbs some of the soupy-ness.

It makes a lot and it was DELISH!

I love easy meals.  Do you have any easy recipes to share with this nauseated momma?  I'm open to suggestions! :)  Enjoy!

Life Made Lovely

A beautiful, full rainbow above the townhouse across the street from us.  Lovely. 

My latest crafting.  Another necklace.  For my lovely friend, Kim.

She picked out the fabric and chain and I made it!  Let me know if you want a custom order :)

That's how my life was my "lovely" this week.  How about yours?  I'm linking up with Heather over at "Life Made Lovely."  

whew!

Ok so apparently I completely forgot how tired I get when I'm pregnant.  I should've known I was pregnant when I was falling asleep at 8pm every night on the couch!  I've really been pretty lucky and haven't been too sick.  I had a couple days where I was sick and we stayed home and layed around all day but lately my days are just very tired and then I get sick around 8pm-9pm and I get worse as the night goes on.  I don't throw up.  I just have constant nausea and almost wish I could throw up sometimes to get some relief.  Peppermint lifesavers have seriously been my lifesavers! :)  They help ward off the nausea a lot of the time. 

So on days that I'm not feelin' so hot, Lincoln gets to watch lots of "choo choo!" (Lincoln-ese to English translation = Thomas)  He has a new found obsession with trains, or "choo choo's."  I feel horrible that he has watched so much TV but it's just for a phase and hopefully he won't get used to this new "routine!"  

My view from the couch lately....

Lincoln's new sad face.  I ask him if he's sad and I get this face in return.  So cute!  He also throws his hands in the air and yells "HAPPY!" when I ask if he's happy and I still need to get a picture of it but he's got the Macaulay Culkin, hands on the cheeks, screaming look down when I ask if he's scared.  It's adorable if you ask me! :)

He's so sad that we can't go outside to play

And here's our little bambino at 7 weeks 2 days.  I had an early ultrasound because of some spotting early on, my hcg levels weren't doubling like they should (they were still rising by quite a bit but not doubling) and my progesterone was on the low side of normal so Doctor set up an ultrasound and told us not to be overly optimistic.  Basically prepping me for another miscarriage.  Got in there and heard the best sound in the world....a tiny little heartbeat.  135bpm....strong heartbeat.  Amazing. 

I haven't seen my doctor yet and will go next week (I'll be 10 weeks then).  I'll know more about what to expect with my "high risk" status after that appointment.  Please pray that this will be a LONG, healthy and safe pregnancy for both me and the baby.  I have to admit, anxiety has started to creep in a little but God has us both in His hands and is totally in control of this situation and I'm leaning hard on that.  

You'd think I've hit my max with pregnancy problems so hopefully this one with go on normally without a hitch! :)  I'm definitely praying that way at least!

Lincoln has something to tell you all.....

Yep, you heard right, I'm PREGNANT!

Update on Baby J

***Update on Baby J***


I talked to his foster mom, Michelle, yesterday and found out that they've talked with "higher ups" and things are getting a little better as far as rules are being followed and stupid decisions aren't being made (at the moment at least!)  This relative of Baby J's is really trying.  He knows he's the only one in the family somewhat "fit" to adopt J and so he's trying.  He has good intentions and we've gotta give him props for trying.  He is going to Dr. appts to learn how to care for Baby J which wasn't happening before so that is SO GOOD, rather than him getting unsupervised visits with Baby J without knowing how to care for him (doesn't make sense does it? And now the safety of J is the priority whereas before it didn't seem that way). This just means that there is going to be a LONG process of trying to see if he is a good fit and able to care of Baby J.  Does that mean he CAN and WILL be able to care of J?  No one knows at this point but since the goal of foster care is to reunite with the family....they have to try every avenue and check thoroughly into this relative.  Which makes sense, it's just hard since Baby J is 11 months old now and this should've been checked into 6-7 months ago!  So we will wait it out and pray God's best for Baby J.  You can definitely count on us being there, waiting with open arms if this falls through and J goes up for adoption but for now we pray.  

Just wanted to let you all know where we are in the process.  Basically everything is at a standstill on our side until there is a decision by the court about this relative.  Oh the ups and downs of the foster system. 

So that's all I've got for now.  My heart is ok.  It's hard, yes.  But my trust is in the Lord and His will for this precious little boy.  

I married a WARRIOR!

So my hubby has been known to do some crazy things (like decide to fun a full marathon 3 weeks before the race and then finish the marathon and not only finish but got second in his age group)  Yeah he's crazy good like that.  Anyways, a former classmate of his from his job training asked if he wanted to do this "Warrior Dash."  He asked me what I thought and I (like almost everything else he asks me about) said, "why not?  sounds fun!"  Keep in mind I'm not the one doing these crazy things so I can get away with saying that.  There's no way I would try or even be ABLE to do half the stuff he does. 

So this so called "Warrior Dash" was this past Saturday and it was actually really fun to watch.  I was kinda dreading it (and the 3 hour drive down there) and I wasn't feeling the best but once we got there I really started to enjoy it. 

Here is some info on what a Warrior Dash is:
It's a 3.1 mile "dash" on some of the roughest terrain they can find (Tyler's was mostly uphill) with obstacles to complete throughout the race
Obstacles include jumping over fire, crawling under barbed wire, walking on uneven boards, climbing up and over a cargo net, climbing over logs in a lake, etc.
There are waves of up to 500 people that start the race every 1/2 hour.  Tyler's race started at 5:30pm. 
There are lots of crazy people dressed in all sorts of crazy outfits! (We saw tutus, guys in dress suits, lots of speedos and capes etc)

 There was an area for "spectators" to see two of the obstacles so we waited there for Tyler and Laura to come through.  Lincoln loved watching it all. 

Here Tyler is coming down off of the cargo net

 Tyler and Laura heading to the uneven planks (or at least that's what I named them, don't know what their official name is)

Here they are all muddy after the race. Laura got some mud in her eyes :(

Since we weren't fast enough to get over to the fire jump and the barbed wire mud pit, here are some pictures of those obstacles (obviously it's not Tyler or Laura doing either of these)

Lincoln got to wear daddy's medal

And it wouldn't be a Warrior Dash without eating a huge Turkey leg afterwards!

Lincoln sportin' daddy's Warrior Helmet after the race

We got home late that night but it was a fun day.  It was HOT but thankfully we were there at the end of the day and it cooled off towards the end.  And actually I think next time, I want to try this with Tyler :)  Who knows, I'll probably die but I at least want to try!

And sorry for all the pictures looking the same way lately.  I am just loving what I'm learning about photoshop lightroom!  But my 30 day free trial is almost up.  Sad day, I know.  It'll be a little while before I can purchase this because oh man have you ever looked into how much it costs?!  Well to ME it's mega bucks!  I'm gonna have to start saving my monthly "blow money" from our budget so I can get lightroom because I am totally hooked! 

busy, busy, busy

things are CRAZY busy around here.  That's why you I haven't been blogging quite as much lately.  We are super busy trying to get all the last things done and squared away for our final homestudy visit on Monday.  Lincoln had his physical done today so that's another thing checked off our list. 

The weather has been absolutely beautiful this week and we have spent every single day outside soaking up the sun!  Since Sunday we have either been at the beach, at the pool, playing at two different splash parks and a playground with our playgroup!  So fun!  I just love this weather and am still making up for that summer that I lost 2 years ago! hehe! 

Here are a couple pictures from the park yesterday and the splash pad this morning.....

Lincoln's friend, Kayleigh on the swings

Lincoln's buddy Mason on the swings as well :)

Linc and Mason on the slides

Kayleigh and Linc on the slides

So Lincoln was looking down into one of the holes that the water comes out of when someone turned on the water.....I laughed but Lincoln wasn't too thrilled :)  So he kept a safe distance for the rest of the time we were there!

Me and my little man

Well Lincoln is sleeping and there are a ton of other things that I should be doing while he sleeps than blogging (like taking a shower so I can at least smell nice for my hot date tonight)  :)  Or a nap, or making a necklace for a friend, or filling out paperwork for Monday......my vote is a nap!  Sorry Tyler I might just have to be stinky for our date tonight.......

Tyler is doing his first "Warrior Dash" tomorrow a couple hours away so we'll be going to cheer him on and take pictures of course!  I've never seen on of those done so it'll be interesting.  Hope you all have a great weekend!

more, more!

 That's what Lincoln kept saying each time after Daddy threw him up in the air like this...

He was having a blast and wore Tyler out because he wanted to be thrown up in the air so many times!  He wasn't extremely fond of the big pool except for this part :)

Yep that's me in a swimsuit....yikes!  The things I'll do to {embrace} the camera....haha. 
Lincoln hated his life jacket so he had to hold my hand while we sat next to the pool

Baby J's foster parents invited us to spend memorial day with them and some other friends at their pool.  It was a PERFECT day to be in the pool and we spent a good almost 6 hours loungin' out there.  Needless to say Lincoln (and mommy) were exhausted!  

We got to be there for baby J's first time in the pool and he LOVED it!  I held him for a LONG time and he was just so relaxed and loved splashing around in the pool!  It was so fun!  Wish I could show you all pictures, he is such a cutie in his little swim trunks and hat!

There are still no updates on the situation with him.  We are still waiting on this situation with a relative.  It's a completely ridiculous situation and since everything about it is so wrong, I have hope that it will get overturned by "higher ups."  Keep praying that this "situation" doesn't happen. 

We are finishing up our homestudy this next monday! yay! It'll be SO nice to have that done and over with!