Staycation Part 2

October 23- We went on lots of family walks, with our adorable little bundled up bundle of joy!

October 22- We tried to go to Starbucks (a Sabbath tradition), but Der wanted to play at home.

October 21- We spent the day on the lake. The weather could not have been more beautiful!

Mommy's punkin :)

So sweet!

 Too many cute pictures to count!

October 20- By far the most adorable pumpkin I have ever seen!!  We took Der to the arboretum to see all the pumpkins.

October 19- The breath-taking view we had of the city from  our room downtown!  Ryan has a knack for getting free upgrades!

October 18- Our night away!  It was nice to get dressed up and not have to worry about getting spit up on!

I wasn't able to get the whole week of our "stay"cation up as planned.  Sometimes Der doesn't cooperate with my agenda for the day :)  I hear babies tend to do that...so here are the rest of the pics!

Our "stay"cation part 1

October 14- Poppy and Nonna came up to watch Der so we could go away for the night!

October 13- A beautiful evening!

Ryan took the week off so we could spend some extra time as a family!  It was so refreshing and relaxing!  Lots of great memories were made!


And as a side note, I read a wonderful book- Crazy Love, by Francis Chan- comes highly recommended-its not often that I read a book in a couple of days, but I was so intrigued and then empowered that I couldn't put it down!   Its about living out the Gospel!

More pictures....finally!

October 15- Time for some fun in the sun- Ryan is off for the next week!

October 14- Der was such a trooper today.  We babysat J in the morning, visited O. Henry in the afternoon and then went to Bunco with lots of squealing ladies - he was a sweetie through all of it!

October 13- Der got to spend another full day with Meme...which also means I got to go shopping!

October 12- Meme came up to spend time with the little man and give me a break (such a treat!).  No wonder he is having more fun- he is bathing in the cereal :)

October 11- Chilly enough for a jacket- this cutie will warm my heart. so sweet!

For moms

I read this on a blog I follow and I thought, that's me! I pray that this encourages you as it has me!

When Worries Multiply

from girltalk by Carolyn Mahaney

 

Mothers, we have the gospel: we need not fear. And yet we do. A lot.

Our mothering fears are conceived with our children. We see two little blue lines, and we are tempted to worry. We worry about eating something bad, lifting something heavy, sleeping in the wrong position.

Then our baby is born, and we fret about her life outside the womb—her eating, sleeping, talking, walking, developmental progress.

Our child starts school and we fear he will never finish. Will he make friends, make good grades, make something of himself? No sooner does high school start and we begin to worry about college.

We worry about our children’s health, their education, their friends, and above all, the state of their souls.

But once our children leave home, get a job, get married--then we can stop worrying, right?

Not so fast. Instead of leaving with our children, new worries move in. In my case, I now have 16 people (including sons-in-law and grandchildren) to worry about instead of four!

And the world in which my grandchildren are growing up seems much scarier than the one in which I raised my children.

Mothers, we will never out-grow our need to trust God for our children.

But neither will we ever outgrow the faithfulness of God: “the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children” (Ps. 103:17).

4 Months old!

October 6- Hello George Washington.

October 5- Der decided that he likes the sling.  He smiled at me when i put him in :) 

October 4- I thought dinner looked pretty enough for a picture-it was yummy!

October 3- It's hard to believe my "baby" brother is 19 and now holding my baby!  On Saturday, he rocked him to sleep and changed his first diaper-such a great uncle!

October 3- What a fun weekend we had with my family.  Der loves his Nonna and Grand Poppy!

October 2- Der's first solid food.  He loved the rice cereal!

October 1- Photoshoot in the morning, shots in the afternoon (notice the cute band-aides).  At 4 months, Der is 25 1/2 inches long, and 13 lbs. 9 oz.- tall and thin like daddy :)  Thank you Lord for a healthy, happy baby, may we never take that for granted.

October 1- Ryan took some 4 month pics of the little guy.  These were a few of my favorites!

September 30- A play date with our friend Hayden, born just 5 days before Der (they didnt do much playing, but I sure enjoyed hanging out with Emily)

September 29- What a QTpie!!

Family fun!

September 27- Our morning routine...reading a story out of "The Big Picture Story Bible" (comes highly recommended).  Der isnt always this excited, we often have to wait till he falls asleep :)

September 25- Ryan made homemade cinnamon roles- they looked beautiful and tasted even better!  That was not part of the "loose the baby weight" plan.

September 26- How did Ryan and I get a "morning baby"-who wakes up that happy?!?

September 24-YAY for date nights!  We went to Gloria's on the boardwalk in Rockwall.  The weather was perfect for dinner on the patio-thanks Beth and Frances for babysitting!

Following Ryan

Ryan here...I just wanted to let people know of a couple ways they can follow what I am doing at the church:

I write a blog for the church I work for if you wanted to check it out and follow: http://prayforfpc.blogspot.com/ the hope for writing the blog is that it would challenge others to think about their faith and encourage them to grow in it.

Also, you can follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/ryanodowd (don't worry, I am not updating about every aspect of my life).  I generally post challenging/encouraging quotes, updates for the youth group, and links to the blog mentioned above.

Just thought I would throw it out there if anyone was interested.  Sorry...no cute pics of Der in this post :)