Riley Kate's Big day

Riley Kate's actually birthday was Friday but we celebrated with family yesterday. And we couldn't not have asked for a prettier day to grill and play outside. She had an absolute blast and was worn out by the end of it all.. Here are some photos from the day..

Her daddy grilled for us-some yummy cheeseburgers and hot dogs

Her and cousin Addy played

and played 

and played

She rode in her little red wagon...

with BB as the engine

her engine got tired :) He is such a good uncle!

Aunt ashy and Baby Madison were there to celebrate too!

Everyone enjoying the food daddy cooked ;)

Hadi enjoying her food-thanks aunt Jamie!

Riley enjoying her cake ball.

People used to say I had this man wrapped around my little pinky... but i think she's got mommy beat :) 

Even had so dear friends drop by 

Worlds BEST Molly and Papaw :) 

so glad Nanny and Papaw could make it!





Poor GG is not pictured... i think she was too busy-she did have three grand-babies in one place :)

can't believe our baby is two :)



just for fun here is a picture from last year to show how much she has grown...

Remembering the day a Mommy was born

Today is Riley Kate (my oldest) second birthday. As I write those words and read back over them it almost takes my breath away. I know two is still little but I have seen-first hand-how very fast two years goes and each day she grows more and MORE :) independent. I think we have already had the "terrible twos" like three times :), but she for the most part is a complete joy. The way she is able to express herself and her creativity -crack us up!  So here is the story of Riley Kate..

It was October and Aaron and I had moved to Owensboro the previous June. We had started talking about the idea of starting a family in the near future but were still taking measures to prevent that. That August I started my first year teaching. I was teaching 4th and 5th grade reading in a small country school in Henderson Co. (My 4th and 5th graders that were in my class will start 7th and 8th grade next school year )  The commute was tiring and the lack of job opportunities for Aaron was very stressful. He was waiting tables from like 3-11-and i left home in the mornings about 6:15-6:30. Needless to say we rarely saw each other and I at times felt as if my world was crumbling. One September night, I met a Murray friend (whose family lives in O'boro) for coffee at Starbucks. During the conversation we talked about anything and everything but before we were finished we began discussing babies. She and her husband had been married just a little bit after Aaron and I had. We both expressed our fear of having trouble getting pregnant. Mid October the same friend I had coffee with, called me to tell me she was expecting. I was overjoyed for her and told her it wouldn't be long until we started trying that we were no longer taking birth control. I then began to think and decided that actually i could be pregnant already because i was a few days late. She encouraged me to take a test-so i rushed out and bought one (all while Aaron was at work) and sure enough I was. My friend and I were due within a week apart. (We calculated and figured out that God was already forming our little miracles inside our wombs during our conversation back in September.)  There are lots of moments when I am very thankful my life is not recorded on video but when that stick said "pregnant" I would have loved to have had that recorded.  I  went back and forth between freaking out and rejoicing. Like a mad woman I jumped back in my car and raced to walmart to get more tests (I had to be sure) and just in case I really was I picked up a card for Aaron. The tests all confirmed that i was so I wrote in the "Congratulations on the new baby" card and literally paced the floor until he came home. I remember him coming home and taking forever to empty his pockets-which back then he did every night when he got home (to count his tips) . I told him I picked up this card "just because"-he sat on the chair reading it -looked at me and said- "Are you for real?" (I played several tricks on him before :)) I showed him the stick and I remember him just hugging me as tight as he could. 

The night we told our parents 

I taught..We heard the heartbeat... Aaron began looking for another job..We had Christmas..... A MONSTER Ice storm happened...We found out it was a girl....told school i was not coming back (which now seems like it should have been more difficult considering Aaron didn't have a job) .Aaron interviewed for 15000 jobs.... I taught... Aaron got another non-permanent job...

Then .. May arrived -Riley Kate was not due until June 17th.. but May was a huge marking point because it meant school was almost over. We had finished testing -so all that was left was field day, water day. rewards day, talent show,etc.. I was looking forward to finishing up and having the next few weeks to rest up before the arrival of our baby. Oh i should say here that sometime between Jan-May I had an ultrasound which revealed that baby girl was breech. So my doctor had informed me that unless she turned that i would be having a dreaded C-section. I had opted to have my doctor try to turn her (as painful as I had heard that was -I thought it would be worth it).  Anyway May 27th was the last day of school and boy was I ready... i think that was rewards day...anyway it came and went and we said goodbye to the students by doing a kick line as the busses rolled away. Yes, thats right preggers in a kick  line=attractive :) I stayed a little after and packed up my car with a lot of my things so that I wouldn't have to do it the next day (teacher's closing day). On my way home I talked to several people rejoicing that it was my last day of school-including my friend who is a labor and delivery nurse. I had told her about some "symptoms" that had been going on with me earlier that day-and she told me she thought I needed to go to labor and delivery. I had thought my water was broken once before at 29 wks -and had gone up there-and it wasn't. We actually had just gotten the bill and i was determined not to pay an unnecessary visit up there again. So I went to her house... she confirmed that she thought my water was broken..and I needed to go.

Aaron was at work-my friend Annie drove me and dropped me off (so we wouldn't have two cars)-and Aaron met me up there. My mom was trying to make it to see me  before they took me back but she was about 7 minutes late (they wouldn't wait for her-apparently its not good to be hanging out with a broken bag of water ??)

And at 6:59pm my precious baby girl took her first breath. She cried and it was the sweetest noise i have ever heard. They held her up for me to see and Aaron quickly got her and brought her to me .. When I laid eyes on her I was in love. She was 5lbs 8oz and 181/2inches long-turns out i had a septum in my uterus which gave her only a little space to grow. Friends and family were all waiting with cameras when we got to our room. Due to her being early we had some feeding issues to work through and she had a touch of jaundice. And while those things seemed so hard at the time (like feeding her around the clock every 21/2 hrs with a special needs feeder and then pumping after that) those days seem so short lived now. The day after Riley Kate was born, Aaron got a a job offer with OPD.
  These past two years she has filled our hearts with so much joy-she is spunky but sweet-aggressive but gentle. Its fun to see how uniquely God has made her but how we can pick out various attributes of the two of us in her both physically and in her disposition.

My Top Ten Favorite Things About Riley Kate 

10. She loves her "B" (her blanket) and rubs it so sweetly when she is sleepy.

9. She gets slap happy and can't stop laughing when its passed her bedtime 

8. She is very sharp and doesn't miss anything. 

7. She repeats EVERYTHING 

6. She mocks me especially 

5. She like routine 

4. She is really weird about messes and dirt (overly so)

3. She loves her sleep 

2. She loves her baby dolls 

1. She is a performer and LOVES being the center of attention

Loving slow-my children

Why is something so sweet and delightful so hard to do at times? Loving my girls slowly brings me so much joy -although many days unfortunately my love for them looks more like a train speeding full-force down a track (I will explain why in the near future).
I am going to share a story that was told to me that was read from a book...I would love to give the book credit but I honestly have no idea where it came from or if I will get anything but the main details correct. But anyway the story went like this-
"A family was dropping off their oldest son at college on move in day when they passed a fresh peaches stand and decided to stop and partake. The family looked around for a moment and theses peaches looked so yummy. The lady who was selling the peaches said these are the best peaches ever. She said they are juicy and delightful. The family said well we will take one a piece . The lady looked at the mother and said you better get a whole bunch and enjoy them while you can because the season is almost over and you will miss them when its fall." The story went on to relate that to our children. The one who was sharing the story asked a question that hit home to me.. She asked us to recite apart of the book "Goodnight Moon", which Riley Kate and I read most every night and of course I chimed in- "In the great green room there was a telephone and a picture of the cow jumping over the moon." She reminded us that one day we would say Goodnight to moon for the last time. This simple story motivated my heart to slow down. I remembered thinking as she shared, how most nights tired and to the point of exhaustion, I  race through the story. Oh how I desire to eat every "peach" with my children (a.k.a.love them slow). I hope this encouraged you to do the same.  Sit down and play and eat some peaches.

Loving Slow-Loving my Husband (Part 2)

So apparently I am real slow...at blogging that is :)
But I wanted to keep up and further explain my life's goal in loving slow. Just a clarification if you haven't read my other posts -this "loving slow" thing is not something I do all the time unfortunately, its not something I have mastered, and honestly some days I stink at it. It is the exact opposite of what is natural for me- but how I want to live like this so bad.
     Loving Aaron -aside from Christ-is my favorite person to love slow but he is also the one that I neglect to love slow the most-although he on the other hand does a fantastic job of loving me slow. As I reflect on why this is so, i can only concluded that I let the "urgency get in the way of my priorities" (quoted from my dear friend) I desire and plan to love Aaron slow each day and give him my full attention when he is telling me a story from his day or an idea he has but then.... a glass of milk is spilled, someone is crying, everyone is napping and i really need to get a shower, or some other "urgent" agenda item needs to be completed.
       We were blessed to be apart of a Marriage Bible study led by one of our newest pastors and his wife last fall (this couple seriously has the most amazing marriage) and they challenged us wives to love our husbands slow-and although I am pretty sure they didn't use that phrase-that is exactly what the challenge was. Instead of doing the dishes while he watches the game, forget the dishes for the moment and just go sit beside him and watch the game. If you hate basketball(or whatever it may be)  -learn to love it! He wants not just someone-but you-his wife-to be his buddy. Marilyn also challenged us that no matter what we are doing when he begins talking to put what we are doing down, turn and listen and be fully engaged. What if our husbands are really needing us to actively listen and after only a few moments of what we feel is just going to be small talk they reveal something they are struggling with, an issue at work, or whatever -and we miss it because that soap scum ring was just really bugging us.
      Before we got married Aaron and I read several books and had amazing counsel from Bro. Ricky Cunningham of Hardin Baptist. One of the things we discussed and read was how obviously different people receive and give love. Almost five years have gone by and we were laying in bed the other night and it hit me I totally am loving Aaron the way I want to be loved. It's almost as if I forgot what his love language was and instead displaced it with what I thought it should be---mine. I have found that doing that-loving someone in a way they don't necessarily receive love-- is like banging your head against the wall. Let me put some flesh on this- scenario : I work hard all day to make sure the house is spotless... i think wow Aaron is going to come home and the house is going to be a "sanctuary" for him. He will surely know how much I love him because his sheets smell like downy and his shower like comet. I work tirelessly thinking I truly am loving him sacrificially. You may think this sounds silly but if I came in after a long day this would truly make me feel so loved and appreciated.  Aaron comes in and says, "house looks nice".. While he appreciates the house being clean it does NOT make him feel more loved. He would much rather me rest and be refreshed and ready for a night out or a long night watching movies and talking-than to have a spotless home.

    And while this next part might make my grandmother blush- we also must intimately and intensely love our husbands slow and with great attention in the bedroom. This might be the most important part of loving them. Loving them slow in this area is being intentional about carving out time, it is initiating to them throughout the day via text, phone call, etc.., it is dying to yourself and elevating their needs above your own. Lisa Hyland-whom I refer to often-was challenging a group of women to think about our husbands as buckets and we get to fill them up. We don't want to only fill them up half way- so the world can fill them up the rest of the way, we don't even want to fill them up just to the top but we want to fill them up so much that they are overflowing. So that when they are in the world and Satan tempts them they are so full they can't even think about partaking.
    One way that helps me to stay focused on Loving Aaron slow is trying to think of ways to bless him. Whether its cooking his favorite meal or planning an outing for us. Sometimes my idea bank runs dry... Post ideas and lets encourage each other to bless our husbands this upcoming week and love them slow.


oh and here are a few books that have been recommended to me-most of these I have read-a couple are on my "need to list"

His Needs Her Needs-William F. Harley
Love and Respect-Dr. Emerson Eggerichs
Sacred Marriage-Gary Thomas
The Fruit of Her Hands-Nancy Wilson
Creative Counterpart-Linda Dillow
Feminine Appeal- Carolyn Mahaney


and here are some sermon series links-


http://www.owensborochurch.com/audio/by/album/song_of_songs
http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/the-peasant-princess