True JOY

The other day I read an article called "Unwrapping His Christmas Prescence". The article talks about how we get so caught up in the craziness of the season that we forget the real reason we are celebrating. As I read the article I thought to myself, "Guilty as charged!" Our halls are all decked and the stockings are hung, but did I get so caught up in all the twinkling lights that I missed HIS joy??? While I am busy trying to fulfill my holiday expectations I sometimes seem to forget to experience the true joy of Christmas. As I shared in my last post, I do love Christmas. But, I tend to be a dreamer full of these expectations that can rob my holiday joy. I am reminded so often to check my heart and many times it is not so pretty. Where is all the Christmas cheer I ask? Then I am reminded of "Immanuel"- God with us. While I am busy making six inch ribbon curls the Lord reminds me to let HIS peace and joy light up my holidays, to truly experience HIM. We hope that you too are experiencing HIS joy this season. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Tis' the Season...

Oh how I love the holiday season. Not only do I love what Christmas stands for but I love the decorations, the music and all the yummy goodies. The tree is up and the Christmas carols are rockin' at the Harris home and I am lovin' it!!! Adelyn seems to like the tree and she probably has "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" memorized. We hope you are enjoying this season too!!

A Tribute to Adelyn's Hair

So, from day one Adelyn's hair has just cracked us up. To say it has a mind of it's own is an understatement. Now that winter is upon us and the air is drier it has made her blond locks even crazier. We never know what it is going to be doing when we go get her out of her crib in the morning. Lately it has been in a perfect mow hawk. So I wanted to just post a few pictures of her hair at it's morning best. We hope it brings a smile to your face too...we love it!!!

The Little Pink Bunny

Well we survived Trick or Treat. Spencer was working that night so some friends from church came over to walk the neighborhood and help pass out candy. The homes in our neighborhood are built VERY close together. Lots of homes equals loads of kiddos knocking on our door.

Adelyn dressed up as a pink bunny this year. She was not real sure about the hat with ears. I think she could see the big ears out of her peripheral vision so she would move her head from side to side trying to figure out what those long pink ears were doing on the sides of her head.It cracked me up. As far as the outfit, she did not mind it so much. I think she liked how soft and cuddly it was. And no big surprise, she loved to chew on her carrot. These days, she loves to chew on anything .But it was quite appropriate for her (a bunny) to chew her carrot. We walked up and down our street and then were ready to come in. It was a fun first Halloween but we sure did miss daddy.

The Two Tarantulas

Every third Saturday of the month the Virgina Living Museum has story hour that is free to the public. Each Saturday the volunteer (an older lady named Teddy) reads a short story and brings in a coordinating animal for the children to see. Today she read about spiders and brought in two types of tarantulas.

The first tarantula she brought around was a regular tarantula. She showed us it's fangs and was even able to pull out some of it's silk. The second spider she showed the children was called the Goliath tarantula and the name was very fitting as it was HUGE. Teddy said that it is the largest spider in the world. I do believe that if I came across one I might just pee my pants. You cannot tell in the pictures but it was quite large. Anyway, it was lots of fun. Adelyn enjoyed watching all the kiddos jump in excitement to see the tarantulas. We are looking forward to next month when we will hear about and get to meet a turtle!!

The Petting Zoo

There is a small petting zoo near our house that Adelyn and I went to over the summer with my sister and nephew. It is a little cheesy but fun nonetheless. Spencer was post-call the other day so we had the afternoon together as a family. We decided it was the perfect day to go visit the animals. Let me add, that the last time Adelyn fell asleep so we were hoping that this time she might be a little more interested. The petting zoo has quite a variety of animals. There is a tiger (obviously not an animal to pet), river otters, monkeys, a llama, goats, deer and more. And yes, Adelyn was much more interested this time.

As most of you know she is quite the intense little girl so she enjoyed studying the animals and watching them walk around. We were the only ones at the small zoo that day so we had the animals all to our self. It was funny to watch them as we walked through the barn. Most of them just laid there and slept, I guess they found us to be pretty boring. Although the llama did come walking up to Adelyn and I just in time to get into the snapshot that Spencer took of us.

The petting zoo is owned by the SPCA so it just so happens that in order to get to see the animals you must first walk through and look at all the rescue dogs and puppies. Oh how my heart aches for those doggies. All those puppy eyes looking at you makes me so sad. We went around and talked to all the dogs in their kennels as they begged for us to take them home. We wished that we could but we decided we probably have enough going on and don't need a canine friend right now.

My Own Agenda

Time, it is something that we all feel like we don't have much of. I wake up with an agenda, a new plan for the day ready to start and conquer. We all know that Spencer is the "King of Planning". A personality trait that could sometimes drive me crazy when we first got married, but I have now come to love. You see, I used to pride myself on being this laid back, procrastinating, go with the flow kind of girl. But honestly there has always been a part of me that liked order. I now like to call myself a "laid back planner" (is that an oxymoron?) Becoming a mom makes you more organized, doesn't it? Or maybe I have become more scatter brained and need to make out to do lists or I will forget what I was thinking of 5 minutes ago. Of course every day is different but I do like going in with a plan and a somewhat (let me STRESS somewhat) predictable routine. Anyway, this plan and agenda can sometimes become a problem. It is hard for me to get off track. For example, it is easy for me to bake my neighbors brownies and drop them off. But if they invite me to sit and visit on the porch while Adelyn naps it is hard for me to stay. Tick, tock, tick the clock is chasing me. There is so much I want to get done while she is down for an afternoon nap. My agenda is calling me. Clothes to wash, dinner to prepare, oh yeah and have I showered today? Now I know this is not always a bad thing but it can get in the way of building relationships and taking time for people, including my family. Someone once told me that people are more important than projects. So next time I'm caught up in my own agenda I want to try to set the project aside and really listen to what others are saying.

Greetings

Greetings from Newport News! Little signs of the fall season are starting to appear outside our window. How time flies. Time is such a funny thing, isn't it? There are days I feel will never end and others that just zoom by. But when I think back of our time here, I wonder where did the summer go? Nonetheless, we are enjoying the cooler days and crisp fall evenings.

Adelyn and I went to our first play group the other day. All the children were one year and older so they were walking and crawling all over the place, Adelyn just stared in amazement. It is hard to imagine that she will be doing those same things in just a few months. The group met at my neighbors home so it was very convenient to be able to walk across the street when Adelyn got up from her nap. Speaking of naps, I think I need one :) Sleep has been a battle the past couple of weeks with Adelyn. We have started her on food and she has been a bit constipated. For the past few months she has been falling asleep so well, so it is hard trying to figure out what is causing her such total hysteria in the crib. It really is a battle in my head. Do I go hold her? Rock her? Let her cry? How long do I let her cry? Feed her again? I have heard from many moms to try and read your babies cries. Little Miss Drama goes from zero to one hundred. It is either happy or hysterical. So we are still trying to figure out how to read her. Although I will say that she slept much better last night, once she finally fell asleep. We all woke up feeling much more refreshed this morning!!! A fresh start to a new day, thank you, and I'll have another!!

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY

One of my friends once said that Satan uses Sunday mornings as a way to try to keep you from church. Since having a baby, I agree with this statement. At seven weeks old we began leaving Adelyn in the church nursery. We knew the longer we waited the harder it would be ( for me) to leave her. In hopes that if we start her early, she would adjust easier and come to love the nursery. Well since the beginning she has never been to keen on the idea of the nursery. As the months have gone on her occasional cries have become loud wails to be heard in the sanctuary. And as most mothers know, you can always recognize your babies cry. When you drop your child off in the nursery they give you a number. During the service if you are needed your number will appear in red on the two small boxes located on either side of the stage. Spencer and I have come to know the nursery workers quite well and frequently see our red number pop up. The poor nursery workers...they are so kind. I feel like I need to bake them cookies each week. I fear that they dread to see us coming. But each week they lovingly welcome Adelyn with a warm smile and open arms. Yesterday we saw our red number, not once but twice. The first time I went to get Adelyn. I took her to the cry room ( a room where you are able to watch the service while you feed or whatever else you need to pacify your child. I am very thankful for this cry room as I have spent some time in there) to feed her. Once finished I decided to try the nursery again. Here goes round two!! Honestly, I just wanted to stay in the cry room and hold the little one but I know it will never get any better if we don't keep taking her back. So I dropped her off and anxiously returned to the service with Spencer. Fifteen minutes later a loud wail comes from the hallway and you guessed it, our number popped up again. Sigh. This time Spencer went to the rescue. At this point, the service was almost over so they just walked around outside until she went to sleep. Each Sunday I nervously awake knowing we have to face the nursery yet again. There are so many times when it would easier to stay home (especially when Spencer is on call) but we know we must keep persevering, for Satan cannot win. We love our new church and have began to establish some special relationships with the members. God just continues to reveal himself and show us this is where we are supposed to be. Spencer and I are continually reminded that God is faithful, through the wails we here in the church hallway to the smile we receive from Adelyn when we pick her up from the nursery. This parenting thing is not always easy, but we would not change a thing......well maybe a few less wails on Sundays :)

A Fun Family Weekend

AHHH, a relaxing weekend as a family! It was actually the first whole weekend that Spencer has had off since residency began so needless to say we were super excited for those few days off. It was a great time for Spencer to get refreshed and Adelyn and I LOVED having him around. So Friday night we did our usual routine, we took Adelyn for a walk through the neighborhood and then Spencer bathed her (that is there special time together, it's really sweet). Once she went to bed Spencer and I just vegged out and watched a movie.

Adelyn has been getting up around 6 so at 6:30 we decided to go for a drive down to the water. I know it seems crazy to go for a drive so early but Tropical Storm Hannah was all the buzz that day and since it was our first tropical storm we were excited to see what the water would look like. But there really wasn't much to see. I think everyone thought it was going to be much worse (especially our neighbor down the street who boarded up his windows). The stormy weather made it a perfect morning to make a big breakfast and get cozy on the couch. That was one of those mornings that I wish I could save in a jar. Isn't it the simplest things that make the best memories?

We had one more day left in our little family weekend. So, on Sunday we decided to head to the beach. We packed a picnic and all the other beach goodies and loaded up the car. We went to church and then headed over to the ocean. It was a beautiful day. Sunny and breezy without the worry of crowds of tourists filling up the beach. Adelyn liked the ocean. She just stared at the waves crashing and wiggled her toes in the sand. What a great weekend we had!

Labor Day Weekend

Honestly, is it just me or does anyone else get Labor Day and Memorial Day mixed up? I don't know what it is but every year when it comes to one of these holidays I never know what to call it. Anyway, I now know it was Labor Day, a day off for working citizens, including Spencer...YIPEE!!!

We had a great time spending the day with Sean, Beth and Dylan. We ate some yummy food, relaxed on the deck and then went to the park.

and Adelyn makes 3

So this is our little Adelyn. She is now 5 months old and we are totally in love with her. She is smiling and laughing and cooing and rolling. All the fun stuff babies do and we are just eating it up. I always looked at those parents who made those silly faces and annoying noises just to make there baby smile and thought they were so goofy....now here we are and proud to be one of those crazy parents!