Planes, Trains & Automobiles

In just a few short days Zach, Penelope & I are headed to England!
I honestly cannot even believe it's happening!

At the beginning of the year Zach and I had been planning a road trip to California to visit family and friends. Then Zach got informed that our church was taking an event we do (called Skull Church) out of the country for the first time and were headed to England. We decided because Zach would have to use his vacation time to go on this trip that we would expand it by three days and have Penelope and I come so that we could have our family vacation we wanted.

It has been a crazy journey prepping for this 10 day excursion!

Passport for Penny.
My plane ticket.
Rental car with carseat.
Making lists of what to bring for Penny.
Borrowing luggage.
Figuring out food for Penny.
Show got cancelled down south.
World travel adapter kit for phones.
London Pass.
Researching anything and everything that has to do with traveling with a 10.5 month old.
Plans changed again and a Budapest, Hungary show is added.
Change rental car drop off time/place.
Hotel in downtown London.
Try packing light.
Try packing again.
Try packing one more time, have a meltdown, and give up for now.
HAHAHA!

Zach and I have talked about traveling to Europe ever since we first started dating almost nine years ago. I recently found old journals and while reading through I noticed I had written a lot about how I wanted to visit England. Also, if you look at my Pinterest I have pinned a lot of pictures of England. It truly is a dream come true. I am extremely excited that Penelope gets to enjoy this with us.

I do not have much travel experience. I have road tripped as far east as Wisconsin, Arizona to the south, the Pacific Coast to the west, and all states in between. I have been to Canada twice, but it was for a Young Life camp and so I don't even count it as going to Canada as I was at the camp the whole time.

I feel like I've been stuck in this bubble and am so ready to get out and explore the world!

Well, my time to explore way out of my bubble starts on Wednesday!

We will be in England from June 25th - July 5th!
My first Independence Day out of the states...STRANGE!

If you pray, can I please ask for your prayers?
I am praying that ::
Penelope remains her easy, mellow self throughout the entire trip, but especially on the plane rides!
Many would come to the events and receive Christ as their personal Lord & Savior.
Health, positive attitudes & safe travels for the team going.
And truly that it would be an all-around great time for every one involved.

Thank you all so much for your love, support & prayers!

Sassafrass

I'm too shy mom.

Just kidding...I'm a cheese ball!

You're a little too close mom.

That makes me scrunch my nose!

That's perfect, you stay right there.

Well, maybe you're too far away, I'll try and come to you.

Why'd you put me back on the blanket!? I was crawling to you!

Oh, I'm upset and that makes me twist my hands!

Last week I decided to pull out my Canon and utilize it for the first time. 

It was a beautiful day and Penny was looking too cute! 

 

Wild Flowers

On Father's Day we drove up into the mountains and saw so many beautiful wild flowers.
I had to share.

Present Dads

Father's Day 2014 :: Scoping out potential camping spots.

Zach & Penny with Isaac & Emlyn

pals

Isaac, Meg, Emlyn & Isla

the whole crew

old buildings

The trees were so awesome. Also, a black bear ran up that way.

wood chips

Such a neat adventure day with so many awesome views.

Dad's play such an important role. There are so many distractions these days that can take you away from interacting with your children. My hope is that fathers (and mothers! But this post is in honor of Father's Day...) remember to be present.

Take your kid(s) outside and play catch.
Look for bugs.
Fly a kite together.
Teach them something.
Take a drive and finish the time off with ice cream.
Rock the baby to sleep.
Read a book to them.
Take your family to church and discuss what they learned.

Make sure you spend quality time with each of your children and let them know you are there for them. You're there to discuss the tough stuff when they get older. You're there to help with homework. You're there to support their passions. You're there to help them succeed and have a happy life.

 

Let's be present with our children today, tomorrow, next week, in five years, in twenty years. 

They need it.

Heart Cleanse

I've been doing a little inward cleaning lately and my! oh my! is my heart dirty.
I harbor hate, negativity, bitterness & anger.
I didn't even know I was holding so tightly to these feelings until a few recent incidences.
How do I feel about this realization?
Wonderful!  [I hope you can detect the sarcasm.]
It is never an awesome thing to realize how ugly your heart is. 
I don't want to be a bitter old lady at the age of 25!
What young female aspires to that?!
With this ugliness happening on the inside I have come to find out it pours out of me as being standoffish and rude.
If I were asked to describe myself I would have never thought to use those two words.
I realized I was holding on to bad feelings, but not that it was making me treat people in a bad way.
I am extremely grateful for a friend who pointed this out to me.
Sometimes I can be extremely oblivious to how I treat others or the "vibes" I give off.
I would hope that all of my friends and family love me enough to be brutally honest and tell me how I'm acting is not ok.
Seriously.
Brutally honest.
I need it!
I don't want Penelope to grow up with a rude mom.
I read a blog post I found on either Facebook or Pinterest and it really spoke to me.
Raising a Kind Daughter by Kari Kampakis...basically she says to have a kind daughter you have to be a kind mother.
It makes perfect sense. 
Children mirror the actions they see.
If I want Penelope to be a sweet, kind, loving, positive individual then I need to live those qualities out myself.
Am I going to mess up still and have a bad day and act out of anger? Most definitely.
But am I going to strive really hard to change my attitude into one I want Penelope to mirror? You betcha!
Penelope deserves it.
Zach deserves it.
Truly anyone I encounter deserves it.

Proverbs 10:12

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

Proverbs 29:11 

A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.

Ephesians 4:31-32

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

battling it out with a 10 month old

Just when I think we've hit our groove. We're striding. A few days flow perfectly. 

BAM! Meltdown! This momma is exhausted!!

Yesterday may have been the hardest day I've had with Penelope since staying home with her full-time. 
She acted up from the moment she woke up. 
I think what shocked me most is when we were walking she even whimpered and whined the whole time. She LOVES her walks; it didn't make any sense.

I know she has some teeth coming in, but they've never made her act like this. 

Yesterday was an all day whine, scream, cry, no sleeping, wanting to eat everything but then overate and puked kind of day. 
For the most part Penelope is so calm and easy-going. 
"Off" days really take a toll on me. I blame myself and think what did I do wrong? Did I eat something that upset her tummy? Did I not try hard enough to put her down for her nap and threw off her schedule when I let her play instead?

At one point I had to set her in her crib, walk into the other room, and let us both shed some tears for a couple minutes. 

I also had to set her down and let her scream at me so I could get the laundry and dishes done. 

When I put her in her high chair and gave her the food pouch I thought "finally" and went to sit down and breath. Two seconds, that's all she gave me. Two seconds and she threw the pouch on the floor. I asked if she was done and she got all whiny. I handed her the pouch, she started going to town again, I sat down, pouch on the floor. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.  

It seriously felt like the never-ending day.

Finally Zach text me that some friends had invited us over for dinner.
(Well, THANK YOU Thorney's! Dinner was fantastic but the conversation was even better!!)
I had no time to even think about making anything. 
I strapped Penny in her carseat and we drove, and you know what, that little stinker fell right asleep.
Then at our friends' house she was an angel. Cracking us all up. Being cuter than ever. 
She fell asleep on the drive home and fell asleep in her crib right away when we got home.

6:15am Tuesday June 10th

Penny decided to start the battle over again today.

I weep. 

Lord, please give me the patience to get us through this day.

Ten Months Old

I think I say it every month, but seriously, how does this happen?! 

How is Penelope already ten months old?!?

To our sweet & sassy peanut : 

We love you! 

 You are unbearably cute and silly.

You are working on "properly" crawling still. 

You stand really well when holding onto something.

You have seven teeth fully in and one that's popped through recently.

You are only about 17.5 pounds...tiny tot!

Your favorite word is still dadda,

but yesterday you started to say momma! 

You love being outdoors.

You love feeding yourself.

You love bath-time.

You truly are our sunshine.

Happy 10 months baby girl!

She refused to go in her pool which I thought was strange since she loves her baths so much.
Maybe the water was too cold. She did love splashing her hands in it though.

After bath-time smiles.

Her first "fort" and she loved it.

Fashion diva.

"May the Lord bless you and protect you.

May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.

May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace."

Numbers 6:24-26 New Living Translation (NLT)

shy comedian

Penelope has had so much character from the minute she was born.
She didn't cry right away, she sort of just looked around. It actually scared me. Then she finally let out a tiny whimper and that was that.
From day one she made tons of faces and was very funny.
Then she became very serious. Taking in conversations. Checking her surroundings.
Now she displays both sides of her personality.
She acts very shy around new people. She'll tilt her head down and then look up with just her eyes to see if you're still looking at her. Sometimes she'll let out a crooked smile. Other times she'll look at me for approval (are they ok mom?!). If Zach or I are holding her and someone comes up she'll throw her head on our chest and nestle in. [It's kind of the sweetest thing in the entire world.]
I love that Penelope already feels protected and safe with her momma and dadda.
The other side of Penny is one that doesn't come out as often, mainly when she's home, but when she lets loose I just want to squeeze her she's so cute! Penelope's a jibber-jabberer! The girl talks and talks. She giggles and lets out deep stomach laughs. She makes all sorts of faces. She constantly looks at me to see if I'm laughing, because she knows she's funny.
We have a shy comedian on our hands.

The other day on one of our walks we saw a horse, Penny tensed up and got extremely shy. I thought it was so funny, poor girl is afraid of animals. She really doesn't know what to think of them.
So when our "new neighbors" came I wasn't sure how she would respond. She saw them the second we exited our front door and started nervously laughing when we started walking toward them.
"Penny, that's a cow. Can you say moo?!" - me
Nervous giggle. - Penny
Moooooo. - Cow
Nervous breath. - Penny
We turned around and walked towards the house.
Sigh, head into my chest. - Penny

I want to treasure this time with Penelope. She is such a character. Learning and growing every day. I want to remember her personality as it is now. I want to look back and see how it's evolved over the years.

This is when she started warming up to the horse!

Horse.

While momma gets ready someone loves to kiss their reflection in the mirror.

The new neighbors and nervous Nelly. ;)

Date Your Spouse!

I am sad, embarrassed, ashamed even to say Zach and I quit dating.
Right before I found out I was pregnant we were in a pretty low point of our relationship.
For whatever reason pregnancy completely mellowed me out and we didn't fight once.
We spent some good quality time together before we became a family of three.
Now Penelope is ten months old and we've only gone on two dates since she's been born.
Two dates in the past ten months!
That is unacceptable.
I can blame him and he can blame me.
We're both at fault.
Our New Year's resolution for 2014 was to date more, and to have more gatherings with friends.
Well, we have definitely hung out with friends more, but we have neglected us.

When you have kids it's easy to turn your focus on raising them. 
It's easy to make excuses.
What most of us don't realize is how important it is to see your parents have a healthy relationship.
Setting a healthy example of a good marriage is priceless for our children.  

It is so easy to get into a negative routine with your spouse/family.
We start to do the same monotonous things day after day.
We may be in the same room, but we're definitely not spending time together.

Half of all marriages in the US end in divorce.
That makes my jaw drop.
What are we doing wrong?!

We need to start fighting for our marriages.
We need to make them worth fighting for.
We need to set high standards for our children.
We need to work together and not against each other.
As friends/family we need to positively encourage each others marriages.

I need to work on being fully present.
I need to work on being spontaneous.
I need to work on a positive attitude/outlook.
I need to work on keeping Christ at the center of our marriage. [The center of my life, really.]

Two fellow bloggers both wrote posts recently that really spoke to me ::

Crystal just wrote about turning our negatives into praise. 

http://crystallewis.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-standard-june.html

Katie wrote about spontaneity.

http://akupofkatie.blogspot.com/2014/05/are-you-allergic-to-spontaneity.html

When I think about dating I think about these extravagant, expensive dates.
I get really bummed thinking, "we don't have money to date each other."
That is SUCH a lie!
God has placed us in such a time as this.
I'm staying home & raising our little love. This may not bring in an income, but it's a priceless time for us that I don't want to trade for any job.
Zach is working his bum off to support our family.
We are slowly learning how to live below our means.
Going on a date does not have to change our budget for the month.
You can date in the confines of your own home.
Once the little one(s) is(are) asleep the options are endless.
I'm always finding cheap/inexpensive date ideas on Pinterest.

I think it is important to actually go out though, too.

Dressing up makes woman feel like something special.
Complimenting your spouse and noticing the effort they made is so important.
Flaunting your spouse in public is a really good thing.
Obviously there is a point of innapropriate, in which you may hear, "get a room."
But...
Holding hands. Guys - putting your hand on the small of our backs. Short, tender kisses. 
Just showing the world that they're yours.
It makes you both feel lucky to have the other.
And you are lucky.
You are so lucky to have your significant other.

Lets make time to date our spouse this week.