I seriously love this girl!

I know its been a while since I posted...something I really didn't know about blogs before I started this one - they kind of take a lot of time.  Between thinking of posts, taking pictures, editing pictures, writing the post, editing the post, posting, answering comments, looking for ways to improve the website, it gets to be a little time consuming.  And, I had a one year old who didn't sleep consistently.  Which means, I was way more exhausted than I realized.  Which means I had no energy for doing things like blogging.  Thank God the sleep thing looks like it might FINALLY be starting to be a normal and consistent thing.  That means I might actually get to start posting a little more often than once every 5 months! Hurray!

Sweetpea turn 16 months yesterday! The saying, "The days are long, the years short," is definitely holding true for me so far.  Some days and stages seem like they are taking forever, but when I look back over the time since Sweetpea was born I can't believe it has been 16 months already! She is growing and changing so fast right now and I have been terrible about recording the milestones she is hitting. 

Right now she is really taking off with her walking running and talking. She knows a jillion animal noises like bear, elephant, dog, cat, duck, chicken, lion, cow, sheep, and several others.  Her favorite word is "up."  She says it for any sort of movement that she needs help with, whether she wants picked up, put down, helped into a chair, or for someone else to hold her.  She gives kisses to EVERYONE and everything, but rarely hugs. 

She is really starting to listen and understand what I am saying to her, which also means she is starting to deliberately NOT do what I am asking her to do.  She definitely has a mind of her own and a temper to match -anyone that knows her mom and dad aren't too surprised about this as she gets it from both sides!  Tonight she pointed to her crib asking to go to bed for the first time ever. She likes to hold my face with both her little hands and duck her head down and smile at me like she is telling me a secret and then she pulls me toward her so she can kiss me - adorable. 

 My very very favorite thing that is developing in her personality is that she loves to read.  Every day she goes to wherever her books are and brings one - or four - to me, sits in my lap, and we read each one, sometimes over and over. 

Last night she pulled her chair over to the window, and this morning she grabbed one of her favorite books and hopped up to peruse for a few minutes.

Engrossing....

"Mom!!! Why do you always have to interrupt me!!!"

I am so excited to have long afternoons of reading with my bookworm!

When It Clicks...

I was driving today and listening to the song by Casting Crowns, "Praise You In This Storm." It is a song that has gotten me through a lot in the past, and reminded me to turn my eyes to Jesus and to be grateful for all the blessings even in the midst of chaos in my life.  Listening to it today, though, I felt even more of God's Truth "click" in my head and my heart.

I realized today that I distance God so much from myself.  When I pray, even in my head it seems to always start with "Dear God," like a form letter to some big guy in the sky that I don't know. Long road trips with friends are often times of great in depth discussions about life and all kinds of things, but I have never started one of those discussions with my friends with, "Dear Nikki, how are you doing?" So today, for perhaps the first time in my life, I pretended that God was sitting in the passenger seat of my car as I drove and that we were having a talk.  Like friends.  I guess I shouldn't say I pretended, because God WAS there.  He is always there. But, it was the first time that I was able to use my imagination to personify Him, and make the talk more than a form letter. 

I realized during our talk how much I have relied on my husband in the past for things that only God can give me.  I realized how the yearning inside me for other people to recognize me, and compliment me, and encourage me, is a yearning that only God will constantly be able to provide in perfect balance to the other things that I need.  I realized a lot of things.

I hope that this break through is the beginning of really diving deeper into a relationship with Christ. 

Can any of you relate to having a similar break through? Or maybe a break through in some other area of your walk with God? Please share! I need all the break throughs I can get!

And if you haven't heard "Praise You In This Storm" by Casting Crowns, then definitely watch the video below.  Or even if you have heard it, you should watch it anyway!

<3 Rebekah

Radical Faith

I read a blog post the other day that just really challenged me to think again about my faith, and how I am living it. 

I am posting it here because I would love others to read it.  And I would also love to hear your thoughts on it too.

What a Parent Wants to Say Before a Child Leaves

If you are a Christian, how do you feel you are living up to the call of this woman for her son? If you are a parent, do you feel you are being an example of this radical faith? Any suggestions on how to live it more fully? I want my daughter to know all the things in this letter, but I'm not even close to being there in my faith, so how do I get there? And how do I teach her to be there, even if I'm not there? Christianity is so very simple and so very complicated at the same time.  A faith of many paradox.

Embrace the Camera 1.26.2012

Embracing the camera today with a picture from Sweetpea's birthday party.  We had so much fun that day!

<3 Rebekah

Linking up to:

Embrace the Camera

First Birthday Party

We had Sweetpea's first birthday party this last Saturday! It was a cowgirl theme, and turned out very cute.  We had lots of fun with some families from church over for lunch, and Sweetpea had a blast with all the kids.

 

Look at that cute little outlaw!

Sweetpea got a collapsible tunnel for her birthday from her grandparents. It was definitely one of the biggest hits of the party.

One of my best friends flew in from Phoenix to be here for the party. She and Sweetpea got a little coloring action in.

There was lots of great food.  We also had macaroni and cheese, and grilled cheese.  Great kid food, and great snack food for adults! There were hats and bandanas for all the kids, and some of the kids came all gussied up in their cowboy gear, cap guns and all!

And of course....cake! This was Sweetpea's first taste of cake, I think she liked it.  She especially liked to squish the frosting between her fingers, little stinker!

All in all, it was a great day, and a great party. This little girl has been such a light in our lives!

We love you Sweetpea!

<3 Rebekah

Embracing the Camera with my BIRTHDAY GIRL!!

Yesterday was my little girl's first birthday! Wow, where did the time go??? I've heard a saying, "The days are long, but the years are fast." That has really been true for me this year. We had so much happen this year, besides "just" having a baby, but our little Sweetpea was definitely the biggest and best thing to happen!

These days she is just movin and groovin all the time! She likes to take things out of whatever she can find....and occasionally she will put a few things back in.  She can stand on her own for a few seconds, but it kind of freaks her out, so she would rather hold on to things for now. She is starting to push her toys around, and loves wrestling with the dogs (or just crawling over the top of them). She sings when we go on walks, and she flips through the pages of her books and "reads" to me.  She loves to climb the stairs and thinks she is particularly funny when she can start climbing them before I realize she has rounded the corner. She has started to turn her head to the side and act a little shy.  Pretty much, she is stinkin adorable and we love her to pieces! Happy birthday my beautiful girl!

<3 Rebekah

Linking up to Embrace the Camera today!

Simple Things 1.15.2012

I know Christmas is over. I know by January most people are ready for Christmas to be over. But, I just did a camera dump and had forgotten about these pictures of Sweetpea and my mom over Christmas. How precious. Sweetpea LOVED the Christmas tree, and she never tired of having Grandma hold her up to see all the decorations and lights!

Today I'm celebrating the simple things! A wonderful family to share the holidays with! And my baby's first Christmas! I promise I'm done with Christmas and December posts now...at least until the end of this year!
<3 Rebekah

Linking up here:

Embrace the Camera 1.13.2012

These pictures are from December, but this face is just so precious I had to post them! I'm also linking up the the Anderson Crew Embrace the Camera blog post today.  Definitely need to make it a habit to get in pictures with my family!  Hubby and I have so few pictures together, and I want to make sure Sweetpea has some pictures of all of us in the future!

<3 Rebekah

Embrace the Camera!

Whew, catching my breath from December!

That was a much longer bloggy break than I intended on taking! It has been a busy busy time since I last posted back at the end of November! Sweetpea had her 2 front teeth both come in at the same time, during the same week when I was supposed to be packing and getting ready to move from Alaska to Colorado before Hubby's deployment.  Needless to say, it was quite a hectic week.  We moved to Colorado at the beginning of December with just 2 suitcases for the next year! Hubby deployed to Afghanistan a few weeks after Sweetpea and I left Alaska. 

Sweetpea and I had a wonderful Christmas season with my family here in Colorado.  It was the first time in 6 years that I have been in Colorado for Christmas, and though we didn't quite have as much of a white Christmas as I remember, it was still wonderful to be surrounded by family and the traditions from my youth! I was so happy that we got to celebrate Sweetpea's first Christmas here.  She was beyond spoiled by everyone!

The weekend after Christmas we traveled to Kansas to participate in my mom's family Christmas. 27 people under one roof was VERY hectic, but lots of fun.  Once again Sweetpea got completely spoiled by all her great aunts and uncles and grandma great as well! She especially loved her third cousin who is a year older than her. 

After the whirlwind of the holidays, its been nice to start settling into a bit of a routine.  We finally got cable internet hooked up yesterday (another reason its taken me so long to post!).We have really been enjoying seeing old friends, and hanging out with family.  I've been taking some time to make some goals and read some books on motivation, time management, organization, and goal setting.  I think this year is going to be an exciting time. 

I'll be posting more frequently now, but I'm going to leave you with some pictures from the last month!

<3 Rebekah