1st getaway!

I'm way behind on posting but didn't want to forget some fun things that are happening!
On Valentines afternoon, my hubby got to take a 1/2 day of vacay and we headed off to Branson! We were blessed with a free night at Big Cedar and it worked out to where my parents were actually coming in town to see Maren anyways, so we decided to get away for 24hrs. It was much needed and such a blast. We were missing our sweetie by the end though. 2 nights would probably have been too much, but 1 night was perfect and we made the most of it.
We actually had several couple friends that were already there so we got to hang out with them as well. We got to have a nice, quiet romantic dinner alone and a lovely brunch at the Worman house. It was all so delicious. Marc and I decided that we see each other a lot more at home, but we are so distracted with Maren that we rarely have intentional conversations with one another so it was important for us and our marriage to take some time to be with one another!



this was right after lovers bingo... along with all the "old" people at big cedar.!


of course... we played in the arcade! ha.

boys will be boys


And this was our little sweet one on Valentines! She is the yummiest!

I said yes...

8 years ago I said yes to the love of my life! It was the best decision I could have ever made. I can't believe how young we were. We were babies! 20 and 21.
It's a joy to do life with this man by my side and have the privilege of parenting our sweet daughter together. So thankful he asked me to marry him 8 years ago. We've had some really amazing years along with some challenges, but Marc leads our family so well by putting the Lord first in our marriage. For that I'm so very grateful.

1 John 4:7-12 (niv)
⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Headbands!

As a mom of a baby girl, headbands are obviously a must! I mean they are just so darn fun. My husband had one request when finding out we were having a girl and he said, "please no large bow headbands/hairbows!... Obviously we had to break the rules, well at least a few times in her life she needs to go all out, especially for special occasions!
My moms sweet friend made this fun, cute Christmas bow/headband for her. She has an awesome etsy site and makes beautiful headbands. She can also make pieces for weddings or any other special occasions. You can check out her site HERE. Her shop site is called Princess Puddleduck which I think is adorable.





This isn't the greatest picture of her, but its a super cute headband on her in person. Plus her head needs to grow a little to fit in it! It's also princess puddleduck.



I can't wait to use it for Easter!


Another place I like to get bows is PolkaDot Posies. All headbands are $4 or less, and they have some pretty cute ones. Some are more on the simple side and then some are designer. I really like the simplicity of their site.

This pink one is from good ole target. Classic bow style you can't go wrong with one!


Sorry Dad, I like my headbands so they are
sticking around!

4 months!

Maren turned 4 months old February 8th!
How in the world did we ever do life without this precious child?! Marc and I have a hard time remembering life before her. She has started to get so fun and move out of that infant stage into more of her personality. Right now she loves cooing, laughing, sleeping and smiling! She is super fun and still super sweet. We are enjoying every moment for sure. I was reminded the other day of how grateful I am for her and how she really could be it. Sometimes I just assume we will eventually have more kiddos, but we all no there are no guarantees in this life here on earth, so I'm taking in each moment and relishing them.

Poor baby at the doctor. :( It only lasted a few seconds!

This is how she wakes up each morning!

Yumm!

Bumbo and sofie time!

My 2 loves!

So here is what she's up too these days:

-I'm happy to announce she is mostly sleeping through the night now! She does 10/11pm-6/7am (sometimes longer) but its amazing! She occasionally will wake up at 5:30 for a feeding but those are getting fewer and she goes back down for 2-3 hours after that. I'm so thankful for how well she is sleeping.
-She weighs 12 1/2lbs (25th%) 23in (10th%)
-She is now taking 4.5-5oz of BM but I'm starting to supplement a few oz w/ formula b/c I'm just not keeping up good with her and my supply keeps decreasing. Maybe from the surgery I had or I'm not sure what, but I can't seem to get it back up.
-She eats every 3-4hrs
-She still looves bath time.
-She loves going out on walks
-She has usually takes 1 long nap a day (sometimes 2) and then cat naps for the others. I swaddle her for 1 of her naps and the others are on the go or in her swing which she loves.
-She still likes her car seat
-She still shows no signs in trying to roll over... but can hold her head up pretty good now.
-We still swaddle her and want to start breaking her of it, but are scared b/c her startle reflex is definitely still bad and her arms never quit moving. Like never. Any tips on this? I know we should start with 1 arm out and then gradually transition the other one, but any advice? And is sooner better with breaking this habit?
-She is pretty flexible and we are thankful for that. We still take her out to eat and she will just snooze! Hoping this continues :)
-She is also starting to tolerate being held more, which most of the time she prefers to be sat down and left alone which makes me glad, although I don't want to spoil her constantly so I'm trying to be careful.

I think that's about it. I'm looking forward to her being able to sit up and start playing in her jumparoo which could maybe happen this next month!
All I know is that I finally feel like I'm getting out of survival mode and enjoying every moment! I'm still trying to figure out how to get stuff accomplished in the house, work a little from home and be a good wife ;). Haven't quite mastered that! Ha.


Today is also a special day because 1 year ago today we found out we were pregnant with this precious baby! We are feeling so blessed and can't believe how fast the year went by along with the pregnancy. God is Good!

Transfer Anniversary

So it has now been exactly 1 year since we did our 2nd transfer and 1 year since Maren has been in our life. Wow so much has changed in a year! Obviously for the better!
I wrote a detailed post here: http://theyounthappenings.blogspot.com/2012/03/details.html
It seems like a long time ago, but also it feels like just yesterday that I was seeing those sweet words "pregnant" on a pee stick. Still a day that I will never ever forget!
I'm still sad that we transferred 2 and lost 1 baby. I honestly think about that baby a lot, especially now that we have Maren. I wonder if it was a he or she. I also wonder how I would be handling twins right now, but hey I wouldn't know any different!

Here was Maren and her brother or sisters home for 3 months :) This was our souvie they told us! Ha. Most expensive souvenir we've ever bought. (kidding of course)
We still have one more frozen embryo in which we call "the frozen feller." We do like to do that just for fun. But we think about him/her a lot too. We have no idea when we will do another transfer but we are thankful to have one more try. We also feel bad for keeping it frozen for too long. I know its fine, it just feels weird sometimes to think about.
What a whirlwind of a year it has been. We have been so blessed with a sweet, healthy daughter and are thankful to be her parents. I'm also so very thankful that I was able to have such a healthy, great pregnancy. It was amazing and all the worries that we(including the dr's) had were squashed and nothing bad happened! Jesus has taught me a ton through it all and it forever changed us.
We are forever grateful and thankful.