Psalm 51:2-4

Day 3: Pray that your husband will be humble and quick to agree with God about his sin.  Pray that his heart will be tender toward the voice of the Lord.

"Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just." -Psalm 51:2-4



Proverbs 9:10

Day Two: Pray that your husband's relationship with God and His Word will bear fruit in his life.  Pray that he will be a man of wisdom and understanding, fearing the Lord.

"Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment." -Proverbs 9:10

Proverbs 4:23

Many of you that actually know my husband know that he prefers to celebrate his entire birth month---not just one day :) Some days it's a blessing to me, while other days it's a curse. Ha!

 On January 1st we committed to reading our Bibles together each day (for obvious reasons we don't read together on his 24-hour fire station days). We are following a 'read your Bible in one year' track provided by our church's phone app. We usually finish up our day spending time together in the Word, unless we have a special occasion in which we plan accordingly.  Spending time studying God's word together has been a HUGE blessing to us :)  We have seen God move in our lives in extra special ways lately......for starters, my mom was baptized two weekends ago AND my grandma will be baptized this coming weekend. God is SO GOOD to us!

Today marks DAY ONE of his birth month celebration. So, to honor my sweet man I am covering him in prayer over the next 31 days. I thought I'd post each day on my blog in hopes that some of you ladies will jump on the bandwagon with me. Let's cover our husband's in prayer, huh?!! :)

Day One: Pray that your husband will grow spiritually and consider his accountability before the Lord. Pray that he will guard his heart by developing spiritual disciplines--Bible reading and study, prayer, meditation, scripture memorization, etc.

"Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life." -Proverbs 4:23

Go ahead and leave me a comment if you are joining me on this 31-day journey. I'd love to help encourage you and keep you accountable :) Paul tells us that all Christians should pray for one another, and as wives, it is our responsibility and privilege to pray for our husbands.  After all we are suppose to do our men good (Proverbs 31:12).

Eight Months

My sweet, sweet little baby boy turned 8 MONTHS old on July 18th (obviously, I'm behind on blogging.....again.)

I'm loving these dog days of summer, lounging around and hanging out under our ceiling fans as a family. I'd appreciate some cooler weather though, so we can enjoy some outside activity---we pretty much get none these days.

Cale is becoming more and more active, so we have lots of playtime during the day.

Just a few notes about the 8th month:

• According to my parents scale, he weighed 20 pounds and 2 ounces. We go back to the doctor for a well-child check on August 21st.
• Cale doesn't crawl quite yet, but he is a boy on the move! He will scoot and roll his way all around a room. Nothing is safe anymore. I caught him the other day with a drawer on the entertainment center wide open. Time to start preparing the house for my little mover.
• He is soooooo observant. That's almost an understatement. Seriously. Any time we walk into a new place he looks the place over from top to bottom! I think he gets that from his Poppie.
• He says "dadadadada" often when he's jabbering, but he only cries out "mamamamama" when he's really upset. Figures, huh?!
• Someone (not throwing out any names, Noni!) taught him how to shake his head 'no!' It's really quite funny!
• He LOVES LOVES LOVES to swim. We went to the pool last week, and it was still too stinking hot, even in the water, for him to be out during the day. I put him in the sink lots during our days together just so he can play.
• He is a happy, happy, happy boy! He is constantly flirting and smiling at strangers.
• He has two bottom teeth that he LOVES to show off.
• He is such a good eater! He has been eating three meals of real food per day, and practicing with his own spoon some too!
• He now sleeps through the night (8pm-7am).
• I know it's easy to brag on my precious baby boy, but he seriously is the BEST baby! We know we are blessed! ;)

Seven Months

I'm changing up my monthly posting a little bit, because I'm sure none of you really care what size diapers Cale wears. Or how much formula he drinks. Or how many times a day he poops. Or when he takes his naps. You get the point, and you're welcome :)

Seven months. Boy o' boy. I know I say this every month, but I wish time would slow down. I'm really, really trying to cherish these moments and not rush Cale to the next stage, because I know I will never get this time back. I'm a sappy mom these days, still tearful about the least little things.

This sweet boy fills my days up with smiles, laughter, and complete JOY!

These days he has the most infectious ONE TOOTH smile, and he loves to flash it around at anyone and everyone! Any time we go out in public I can catch him smiling at total strangers. Last week he was hamming it up in church while standing on his Daddy's lap, grining at all the people on the pew behind us. His smile warms my heart, his smile brings me closer to Jesus. I can't help but think that Cale has a very special gift. He is soooo sweet natured, I'd like to believe that my baby boy is going to do big things one day :)

While he's still not crawling, he has mastered the art of rolling to get from Point A to Point B.  All the stuffed animals have been removed from his crib, because he uses up all the space he has on any given night. He is getting places with his rolling! I knew I had to remove his stuffed animals when I found him wide awake in the middle of the night 'talking' to them just as happy as could be.

He is still working on sitting up independently too. He does pretty good these days with the 'tripod' position (using his hands to help hold himself up). He tends to lose his balance easily when he attempts to sit on his own, mostly because he is so distracted with the things around him. It's obvious that he doesn't have the patience to learn to sit yet, he's entirely too busy with his surroundings.

We have gone to the pool a couple times in the last few weeks, and I have a feeling it will become a regular summer evening activity. This boy loves the water! He spent nearly an hour and a half in the water during our last visit just as happy as could be. He takes his little hands and just splish splashes around.

He has also really started paying attention to his big brother, Bentley. Cale gives Bentley great big smiles!  Bentley is always the first to be in Cale's room whenever he wakes up in the morning or from naps. I've started letting Bentley jump up on the side of the crib to see Cale, and Cale's always laying there waiting for it with a smile on his face. It's so sweet to see these two! Just in the last several days, Cale has started to "pet" Bentley. He'll put his hand on Bentley and gently scratch. It cracks me up!

One last thing that I want to remember about this time period, I think Cale is a Momma's Boy. Shhhhh, don't tell Alan ;)  He has really started to love on his Momma. Whenever I carry him on my hip, he'll put his arm around my neck and either scratch the back of my neck or play with my hair. He'll also put both hands around my face and pull me towards him for the biggest, slobberiest kisses on the cheek! Melts. my. ever. loving. momma. heart. Seriously.

I love my little family so much, and I love the joy that this little miracle has brought into our home.  What a wonderful God we serve! :)

Time Flies

I cannot begin to explain how quickly time has passed during the last six months.  I feel like I've spent most of my life wishing, wanting, and waiting on that next stage (as most girls seem to do!).  Now that I'm living out the life I've dreamed about and prayed for for so long, I want time to suddenly stand still. My baby is growing too fast.

 

My baby boy had his first tooth sprout through over night. Hummmmph. While I'm excited for this milestone in his life, I'm also very sad that I'll never ever get to see his big toothless grin again. I am not ready for all of this. How do you other momma's deal with these changes? Does it ever get easier?  I'm almost mopey in a pathetic sense over these rapid changes. Can I still blame the hormones for tears?! ;) Haha!

Don't hate me, friends, but my child (in all his toothing experience) has been AWESOME! He spiked a fever last night before bed, but that had no impact on his happy, sweet, smiling personality. In the slightest. He slept for 10 1/2 hours. Solid. I'm a proud mom! :)

Here are a few pictures from his six month photo shoot at JCPenney's. My Aunt (Cale's Great Aunt) took us to JCPenney's to have his pictures made at my Grandma's request. My grandma had our pictures made every year at JCPenney's growing up, so we were just following family tradition!

Six Months

My baby boy turned SIX MONTHS old last week (6.18.12)! :) Time has flown by, and this momma is already thinking about that big first birthday party.

We had his "official" six month pictures taken at JCPenney last week, so I won't get my hands on them for another week or so. We bought the copyrights to them, and you can bet they'll be on this lil' blog when I get them.

Stats: At his well-child check he weight 16 pounds, 10 ounces (34%) and was 27 1/4 inches long (77%). WHOA! I knew the kiddo was growing, but I just didn't realize it was that much. He grew 3 inches in two months! He went from the 10th-percentile to the 77th-percentile. It kinda makes me giggle that he's become so "tall," because if you know Alan and I, you know he doesn't stand a chance in the world at being a giant!

Sizes: He is wearing size 3 diapers, and mostly 6-9 month clothes. Because of that length, he really can't wear anything smaller (especially in his jammies!).  The few pairs of shoes that he sports are size 2. He has the classic fat baby foot, so a lot of shoes are too tight on his chubby feet.

Food: He still eats five bottles per day (ranging from 4-6 ounces), as well as three meals per day. He is doing so well with his 'big boy' foods! His doctor said we could start introducing real table foods into his diet as we see fit. He's tried applesauce, which he LOVES! He's also tried guacamole (LOVES), chocolate icing, and ice cream! He's also started snacking with those little dissolvable baby puff things. We are still working with the sippy cup, but he gets to attempt it with lunch. It's quite a sweet sight!

Routine: He eats every three hours during the day, and routinely takes two naps (morning and afternoon). We don't live too rigidly by a schedule, though. His wake-up time usually varies by a whole hour in the mornings, so the rest of our day gets planned around that. He really is an easy baby, though! He is so sweet and adaptable to change, makes life easy on us. I am definitely counting my blessings with him. He is sleeping better at night too!! (But, he is starting to show signs of teething those front two little bottom teeth! He was up three times last night which has become highly unusual, but he was easily soothed back to sleep in a matter of minutes.)

During my time at work, he spends his time at home with Daddy. I am sooooo blessed to be able to have this situation for our family! I have loved watching Alan master his Daddy-skills, and I have loved watching the bond form between these two sweet boys in my life. Alan works his 2-3 24-hour shifts per week and spends the rest of the time at home with our little guy. I usually work 3 days a week. It seems to be working well for us! It, of course, came with some adjustments, but we are definitely finding our groove with this new schedule.

Developmental Milestones: As I mentioned before, Cale started rolling over. Since he's become more mobile, he's become a belly sleeper. I attribute his better sleeping habits to this, because he loooooves sleeping on his belly. He is such a happy, smiling boy! He has really started cutting loose and laughing too, and it's the sweetest sound to my ears! :) His hand-eye coordination continues to improve daily. It's amazing how much pride I feel when he accomplishes all these small milestones. I love watching him independently interact with the world around him. He is so studious of his surroundings.

We went to Denton last weekend to celebrate cousin Tyce's SECOND birthday! :) Cale was a great little traveler. Most of the pictures in this post are from that trip. It was so much fun to watch those two interact with each other. I know they are forming a friendship that will last a lifetime! I love that he has a boy for an older cousin---he will learn so much from him!

Being his mother is one of the biggest blessings in my life (next to salvation and marriage, of course!). He has definitely given our little family new life, and I love being able to grow and learn in these stages together! :)