She's 7 months old!

Our sweet little miss is 7 months old today :)

Here are her 6 month pictures taken by my friend, Christina of Connelly Photography

Happy lips!

Sad lips :( These are my favorite people - I mean, seriously! How cute are they?!

I love the line 'Little Mismatched - which these clothes are from and also Rufflebutts, where I ordered her rufflebutt with her name on it!

My amazing mother-in-law created this hat! Check out her creations on Etsy site: Dreamland Baby

Kari also made this gorgeous tutu and headband for Mylin for Christmas - what a princess!

2011 Plans, Hopes, and Dreams

When designing this post, I have kept it on hold for many weeks as Joel and I have discussed what we wanted to write in it
I like the few things we've added, but frustrated with myself for the lack of hopes and dreams I have for this year
Where am I going?

This is what we've come up with so far:

Joel...
...will find out where Franklin Electric's headquarters are moving to (which will determine if there is a move in the future for us!)
...will support Rachel as she finishes her degree
...celebrate his 5 year anniversary with FE
...hopes to lose 15 (more) pounds towards his weight loss goal! (he's lost about 10 in the last 2 months!)
...will train for running his first half marathon!

Rachel...
...will graduate with her M.A. from Huntington University!
...wants to find a part-time job as a counselor
...will train for her first half marathon (may do a run/walk combo...)
...will begin to become more involved in worship ministry at church

Mylin...
...will get more teeth!
...learn to walk and talk
...turn one year old :)
...will tell us 'I love you mommy' and 'I love you daddy'!!!!!!!!!! (we sure hope!)

an ode to my tunes

I went a little crazy on amazon.com the past week and bought 7 c.d.s
Gungor - Ancient Skies
Gungor - Beautiful Things
500 Days of Summer Soundtrack
Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself
Imogen Heap - I Megaphone
Imogen Heap - Ellipse
Frou Frou - Details

I have also been playing a lot of pandora.com around our house when at home with Mylin during the day

She even has her own station - the Lullaby genre! (lllloooovvvveee it!!!)

Any tune recommendations?!

Guest blogger: Jill, my sister-in-law

The following post is from my sister-in-law Jill
You may remember a bit about her family from our Thanksgiving trip to Alabama
Jill is an amazing woman, someone I look up to and willingly sit at her feet soaking in wisdom
She is the wife of my brother Adam, and mother to 4 adorable kids, the eldest 2 (Maddie-6 and Hudson-almost 5) she has just begun to homeschool this year
On top of all that she has an almost 1 year old (Andre) that she has recently begun chasing around as he toddles from here to there
This post is about the middle girl, cute and quaint Cosi.


STUFF
Sometimes things are clicking along and everything seems to break. Not sure why this happens. Usually the car alternator goes out, the dishwasher leaks, the T.V. dies (ok, the t.v. is 15 years old...) Things break down from wear and tear and that's just life.

It's harder to swallow when the breakage is due to a particular person. In the span of five days, my little girl broke our camera, our only stapler, and my favorite headband. Really? REALLY?? My favorite headband? With four children do you know how little time I have to go to the store and browse accessories?

It's just stuff. It's just stuff. It's just stuff. I remind myself. And it belongs to the Lord. Psalm 24:1 says, "The earth is the LORD's and everything in it." Pretty much covers the camera, the stapler, and my favorite headband which are now in the garbage. I think God lets this happen to remind me that things are temporary, but His Word lasts forever and gives peace to people in all times.



The culprit :) Cosette 'Cosi' Isabel, 3 years old

Mylin's 'going to sleep' schedule

Remember how I said I was going to get Mylin on a nap schedule?
Cut to us not sleeping through the night anymore and revamp the goal to getting her back on a nighttime sleeping schedule
After some encouragement, compassion, and loving challenge, Joel and I decided to the popular/sometimes unpopular Babywise approach

Nights prior to our trial:
7:00 pm nurse and go to bed, swaddled
12:00 am wake up screaming, try to soothe, end up nursing back to sleep
3:00 am repeat 12:00 am routine.......
7:00 am wake up, nurse, coax back to bed
9:00 am everybody wakes up and starts their day
Then a possible 3 30 min naps throughout the day
We were EXHAUSTED!

Here is how our trial went:

Night 1
7:30 pm nurse, swaddled, left in room awake
10:30 pm wake up screaming, diaper change, back to bed screaming covered with a blanket. every 5-8 minutes someone goes in to soothe
11:00 pm SILENCE AND SLEEPING! (I was so giddy I couldn't fall asleep then!)
3:15 am wake up crying, diaper change and back to bed, not screaming this time!
3:25 am silence!
7:00 am Mylin is up and happy for her day, lasting 12 hours without eating!
4 30 min naps throughout the day

Night 2
7:30 pm nurse and bed with just a blanket
12:15 am wake up crying, soothed once
12:30 am sleeping!
7:30 am up for day!
3 30 min naps throughout day

Night 3
7:15 pm bottle and bed (wide awake!) with blanket
9:15 pm wake up crying off and on, soothed twice by mom and dad
9:45 pm finally silence
7:30 am awake for day!

Night 4
7:15 pm nurse and bed with blanket
9:20 pm wake up crying, soothed
9:22 pm asleep
8:45 am up for the day!

Ok, so I scheduled this to post before I finished keeping track of our trial!
Here we are, 1 week later and little miss is sleeping 13 hours a night, occassionally waking up crying, Joel or I go in there to smooch on her and rub her belly and shortly after she is silently sleeping again

Thank you to Amy, who got my butt in gear to get my baby in gear and restore some of my life!