Honduras kick-off!

Well tonight was our first team meeting for Honduras and we leave on May 17th for a week of serving and loving God's people. I feel like the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of events and planning for the semester. This year is bittersweet for me. I love going to this country God has put so deeply in my heart but leaving my little girl for a week is hard for this mommy. It will be the first time I've been a way from her for more than one night. I know she is going to have SO much fun and be totally spoiled by her grandparents but I can't help but worry that I'll miss something big - like her first steps! However, I'm know that God has a plan for us in Honduras and I pray for guidance and peace about leaving.

On the other hand...I'M GOING TO HONDURAS IN MAY! YAY! And truly I am excited. Our team is full of friends and interesting people that I'm excited to share this experience with. If you'd like to be praying for our team and for us then please pray that our support raising goes well/smoothly for our team. Pray that God would prepare people's hearts to be sensitive to our mission and support us. Please pray that I can lead these people and love them well - that God would give me peace, patience, understanding, etc. Also pray that Lily's mommy will enjoy her week serving the Lord and will remember what a wonderful gift grandparents are to her child.

Here are some pics from last year:

Rolling over...

So I thought rolling over would be an awesome milestone for Lily and I even worked with her on the floor to help her learn how to do it. Well I'm now convinced that wasn't the smartest thing to do. Lily has always been a tummy sleeper and has slept really well whether it was at night or during her nap time. However things have now changed. She has now figured out how to roll over from her tummy to her back and does this as soon as you put her in her bed. BUT she doesn't like to sleep on her back so after awhile she starts to cry and we have a come in and roll her over. Which really wouldn't be so bad but Matt and I are pretty spoiled. We've had many many nights of wonderful uninterrupted sleep, more than new parents should probably have but not any more. So it was Matt's turn last night...she woke up around 11:45pm because she rolled over and then started crying because she really wanted to be sleeping but couldn't. Luckily, Daddy came to the rescue and went in and rolled her over and she immediately went to sleep. Unfortunately, nap time is hard too. If she is not REALLY tired then she rolls over, plays with her feet, and never really goes to sleep. So now we are waiting (maybe not so patiently) for her to learn how to roll from her back to her tummy and then maybe we'll go back to uninterrupted sleep.

She is pretty stinking cute though when you come in and she is supposed to be sleeping.

Happy Valentines Day!! (just a few days early)

So I had just put up a post about how great a dad Matt is and well he's a great husband too! Look what just arrived at my door 5 minutes ago! Aren't they beautiful!

Daddy & Lily

I feel such love for Matt when I see him with Lily. He has become a wonderful father and I truly thank God for him everyday. He doesn't always get to spend as much time with her as he'd like but when he does I really think it's special for Lily. This past weekend, he got up with her (so Mommy could sleep in - Yay!) and fed and dressed her. When I got up and came into Lily's room, Matt kinda smiled and said, "I didn't know what to put on her...does this match?" I thought is was so funny & cute that I decided to share.

Playing with Lily

Lily is so much fun right now. She is constantly babbling and squealing. I'm really loving this age - 6 months. Right now we are working on sitting up independently and it's going really well. I've attached a video of Lily and I playing with her favorite dolly, Samantha - a gift from Grandma Patti. Matt decided that the dolly should have a name so he came up with Samantha and it stuck. Usually she tries to bite Samantha or chew on her hair but that's just Lily's way of saying, "I love you dolly." Honestly, she tries to bite or chew on everything these days. It's so funny unless it happens to be your finger - ouch!

waiting for spring...

So lately I've been really longing for Spring. It wasn't so bad when the whole ground was covered with a few inches of snow but now that it's melted and I can see my yard again, I've been daydreaming about my flowers and garden. This has probably been brought on by being stuck in the house for a while but I've been itching to get my hands dirty and watch my little beauties grow! I'm going to have to be patient but I just can wait to get started. I think I'm going to really increase the size of my vegetable garden this spring. I had wanted to do it last summer but being in my last months of pregnancy, I wasn't sure I'd be able to care for it adequately. And I was right because July I was too uncomfortable and August I had Lily. So this is the year! I'm not sure what size or how I'm going to do it yet but I'm going to starting planning and thinking and dreaming of Spring...*sigh*

Here's some pictures of flowers from last summer...

My day lilies and hydrangeas. I really love my hydrangeas and it's a good thing b/c they are a huge pain the rear. But so pretty!

You can't tell from the picture but there is a climbing rose behind the trellis and I can't wait to see what is looks like this year! I'm so excited to watch it grow.