My heart sings with joy!

Pure love

Pure joy

Purely blessed!

My very own Valentine.

Valentine's Day this year was extra special.  Why?  Because Trevor and I got to spoil our own mini Valentine.  We had such a fun day with our munchkin which began with dressing her in the most precious V-day outfit complete with a custom tutu.  Every girl needs a tutu, right?  Well, Millie has five...no six I think. 

We made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing for all of Trevor's employees at the Harley shop.  I hear they were a big hit!  I love having the chance to do sweet things for our Gruene HD family.  I love them all!  Then, Trevor took his two Valentines out to lunch at McAdoo's Seafood Bistro. Very yummy fish tacos. 

Later that afternoon Millie and I strolled down to the mailbox and ran into our neighbors and their precious girls.  All three of us have daughters all born in September of 2010.  All within days and weeks of each other.  We took a picture of the three of us with our babies all dressed in their V-day attire which turned out adorable.  I would post it but it's on Tiffany's camera.  Tiffany, if you're reading this will you please email that precious photo?  I'd love to post it!

I hope your Valentine's Day was spent with loved ones and I wish you all the love and happiness that God can give!

I never win ANYTHING... until today!!!

I was so excited while reading my photographer/sweet friend's blog a couple of weeks ago.  She and her friend were planning a Valentine's Day contest and were accepting stories from couples on how they met and/or  their engagement story.  Just for fun I decided to submit.  The winner would receive a neat t-shirt that says "my husband rocks" and also a FREE couples photo session!  Amber has done two photo sessions for us (maternity and Millie's newborns) and I just love her work.  Anyway, I found out today that we won the contest!  It just goes to show that my hubby is truly the most romantic man ever.  :)  Check out Amber's blog post here.  I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day with your loved one!

Love this man!

When life gets in the way

It's a breezy, cold day here in New Braunfels, Texas.  A great day to stay inside and enjoy being cozy on the couch.  Millie is napping and I have turned off the television, eliminating any distractions from my ability to update my blog.  I am noticing how easy it is to get sucked into whatever is on the TV at any given moment throughout the day therefore postponing all things on my to do list in my Mom Agenda.  But, NO MORE!  Here I am writing my SECOND blog update for the day.  Surprised?  Impressed?  Me too!

It's so easy to get wrapped up in life these days that I forget sometimes what my life is about.  It's not about worrying why Millie hasn't rolled over yet or what I'm going to make for dinner or whether or not there's a new episode of The Real Housewives on.  It's about focusing on the people and events in my life and working to build those relationships.  So last night, instead of our usual evening routine of dinner and TV after Millie goes to bed, the TV remained off and Trevor and I sat on the couch and had the most inspiring chat.  You see, in my eyes, my husband is the most intelligent man I've ever known and I learn so much from him everyday.  We always have great conversations but there are certain ones that just strike a different cord.  Last night was one of those talks. 

Trevor is a member of the 2011 class of Leadership New Braunfels.  In a nut shell, it's an organization of local business owners who wish to be more involved with the community and city-related business and affairs. You have to be accepted into this program and it's a huge honor.  Trevor is a member this year and once a month a day is dedicated to visiting local businesses to find out how the community and city work.  What makes NB tick you could say.  Yesterday was volunteer day.  They visited with many local organizations from Habitat for Humanity to Any Baby Can, to Communities in Schools.  Trevor began telling me all about each organization and how inspired he was to continue to volunteer his time and his business to make a difference.  His excitement inspired me as well.  You see, now that I'm a homemaker I find myself with a lot of time alone in my home with Millie, just the two of us.  And don't get me wrong, I absolutely love this job.  There's nothing more important to me than raising my daughter but it does get lonely sometimes.  I have this yearning to do more.  Be more involved.  I've started in the right direction though.  I just joined the New Braunfels MOPS group where I am meeting new friends and Trevor and I just signed up for a couple's bible study at our church where I hope we will meet new people also.  But I'm still struggling to be fulfilled.  I want to do something for the good of others.  And after talking with Trevor last night, I am now motivated to get involved with our school system.  Communities in Schools is an organization that mentors youth at their schools to help them overcome a bad past whether it be abuse, neglect, abandonment, whatever.  Now that I'm a mother, I feel a pull on my heartstrings for children.  I hate to hear stories of children growing up in a household where parents are not parents or children that have no parents and have turned to a destructive lifestyle.  I want to talk to these kids.  I want to teach them about God and what true family is. 

My husband says that all day he thought about me during each presentation.  He feels that I have what it takes to be a great mentor to children.  I hope he's right.  He's my greatest motivator and supporter and with his help, I am going to try and get involved in our community in some way to make a difference.  I don't know how soon it will happen since I do have a five month old with me at all times.  AND I'm not ready to give up any moment with her.  But soon....

So... here's to not letting life get in the way, but getting in the way of life.  Living it and not just going through the motions. 

Five Months Old ALREADY!!!

As I always find myself saying on these monthly posts, TIME IS FLYING BY!  Millie is such a big girl now and is so much fun.  Turning five months is showing more and more changes in her sweet personality and I'm loving every moment.  At five months Millie:

• Is STILL not rolling over but is swinging her legs to the side so it may be any day now.
• making all sorts of new noises and faces.  She can vibrate her lips and she thinks it's so funny.
• is ticklish!  Right under her arms is where she starts to giggle like crazy.
• has the sweetest laugh you ever did hear.
• can almost sit up unsupported. She falls to the side still but she may be sitting up before she can roll over!
• loves her oatmeal.  I'll be introducing some veggies soon.
• loves her bath time.  She's always loved it but now she is realizing that she can splash in the water and it makes her giggle.
• loves pulling her pacifier out of her mouth and playing with it (then screams when she can't get it back in her mouth).
• loves to bounce in her Johnny Jump Up
• loves when her daddy reads to her
• can fit into most 6 month clothes
• has amazing head control and the strongest legs.  She loves to stand.
• can focus extremely well and is always looking around and studying everything.  It makes going to the grocery store a pleasant experience because she is so content in her Baby Bjorn just looking at any and everything.
• is still in size two diapers but may be graduating soon.
• is about 17 pounds.

Here is a picture of her daddy reading to her in her room last night before bed.  I love watching him with her.  He truly is the best daddy.  She's definitely got him wrapped around her cute, pudgy finger!

Girls Weekend!!!



Millie and her cousins: Michaela (10 mths), Millie (4 mths), Rylee and Reghan (6 mths)

I cannot ever thank God enough for blessing me with the most amazing, loving family.  Spending time with them is so much fun and I am always happy when we are together.  The great thing about my family is that we have soooo many girls!  We are all so close and my mom, Godmother, aunts and cousins are all my best friends.  We just had a girls weekend at my Godmother's lake house on Lake McQueeny this past weekend.  It was such a blast!  All the girls were there:  my mom, my Godmother Missy, Aunt Viki with the twins, Aunt Dede, Cousin Mindy, Cousin Berenice with her baby Michaela and Cousin Cristl.  We have tons more girls in the family but not all could join.  My sister wasn't there which would have made us feel complete but the great news is that she just moved to New Braunfels!!!!!  My sister and I have always been close but now we will be so much closer.  I'm so thankful for her!

As you can see by the precious picture that looks like an Anne Geddes photograph, we dressed all the baby cousins in a matching tutu outfit (special thanks to Berenice for buying these precious ballerina outfits!) and took pictures.  I seriously think this picture could be a Mud Pie advertisement.  I get so happy thinking about how these girls will all get to grow up together.  Being so close in age is such a blessing.  Colbie Jane, my cousin's Holly and Craig's baby girl, wasn't there but she is almost two and is definitely the leader of the pack when it comes to these girls.  And on Trevor's side of the family, Millie has ANOTHER set of twin girl cousins that were just born in December, Isabelle and Sophia.  They are so precious and small!  It's so wonderful that Millie will be surrounded by family all her age to grow up with.

I think we should have girl's weekend way more often! 

Playing at the lake

Four Months Old!

I can't believe it's already time for me to post about Millie's four month milestone.  It feels like yesterday she was just an infant.  Seriously, time needs to stand still just for a while. 

I can't express into word how much my heart leaps for joy when I see my baby girl's eyes light up when she sees me from across the room.  She knows I'm her mommy and it gives her peace.  Her peace is my peace.  My favorite part of the day is first thing in the morning when she's lying in her crib and I walk in to greet her.  As soon as I peer over the side, I get this precious look...


Melt my heart!

Now at four months, Millie weighs 15 pounds and 8 ounces (86%), is 25 1/4 inches (84%), and her head circumference is 16.1 inches (47%).  She is still a healthy girl!  She is starting to really giggle and laugh a lot now and is so incredibly interested in her surroundings.  She stares at everything and really studies it.  she loves for me to read books to her.  She hasn't rolled over yet but we're working on it!  She's got some weight to carry so I'm sure that makes it a little harder.  She's able to put herself to sleep for naps and bedtime which is AWESOME!  She isn't sleeping that well but I can tell the sleep training is working.  She is officially wearing six month clothing.  Her head control is excellent and she loves to stand up.  I'm going to try to start weaning her off of her swaddle soon.  I'm not excited about that.  We also started rice cereal on Wednesday.  Day one didn't go so well... 

...she fussed most of the time but by the third day she was loving it and begging for more.  The cereal hasn't affected her sleeping though (unfortunately).  I was hoping it would help her sleep better but no such luck.

Rachel and Griffin came by last week to visit.  We had another great day together and another great photo opp with the babies.  I love these two!