Some videos :D

I guess we should just go ahead and make it clear (after almost 2 months of not blogging!) that we won't be posting very frequently anymore because we are just busy being a family and I'm busy being a mom. :) This season of life for us is a little crazy. We're still at my (Michaela's) parent's house raising our initial support for CCC, looking forward to being finished with that soon. We spent Thanksgiving in Asheville, NC with my dad's side of the family and will be spending Christmas with Pete's family. After Christmas we are looking forward to going to the CCC winter conference in Indianapolis where we will get to see many old friends and actually hang out with students from central Illinois! :D

Lucy has changed so much! She looks and acts like a little girl now. Here are a couple pictures from Thanksgiving, and even one from way back on Halloween. Also, a couple of our favorite videos we took this fall. If you're short on time, the last video is the best!

October

Here are some of my favorite pictures from this month so far:

Half of a year has passed already?!

We absolutely cannot believe that Lucy is 6 months old! Now I feel as though I can resonate with parents that often repeat the popular saying, "I feel like she was just born yesterday!"

So many things have happened in the last month and I've been bad at keeping up with this blog. I'm okay with that though because I'd much rather spend my time with my family and working hard to finish raising our financial support so we can return home and do ministry full time.

That said, here are a few short updates:

• Lucy is sitting up well on her own.
• She loves to play with toys now.
• She's still laughing a lot.
• She eats all sorts of pureed fruits and veggies.
• She weighs 15 pounds.
• She is displaying more of a Mommy and Daddy attachment now, but still loves people.
• Her bedtime has been bumped up as of this week and is now around the eight o'clock hour.
• Her two teeth are absolutely adorable, in my opinion. :)

In the last 2 weeks, we traveled from St. Louis to Normal for a little less than a week in our own home, then back to St. Louis for a day, then to Louisville for a few days to visit our good friends, then on to Atlanta. Phew! That was a lot of time on the road. Needless to say, we are happy to be in one place for awhile, but so very anxious to get home for good, presumably sometime in December.

Last week when we were visiting our friends Kevin and Lauren, their 22-month old boy was very interested in "Baby Oosley."

A Happy Disposition

Lately, Lucy has been full of laughs and giggles. We are so thankful for her better sleep schedule too! She only took two good naps yesterday (instead of the usual 3 or 4 shorter ones) and sleeps very well at night. We are praying that this phase lasts a long time. Her smile is especially cute now due to her two tiny teeth.

One of her favorite things to do is roll from side to side or tummy to back. She just laughs and rolls.

Teeth are coming!

Yesterday after Lucy's morning nap I noticed a small cut on her lower gums. When I felt with my finger, it was sharp. That, accompanied with lots of drooling, chewing on everything, fussiness, and a slight fever, tells me that she is teething. Also, the night before she woke up what seemed like twenty times between 3 and 6 AM.

Lucy is 5 months old today and we are still at Pete's parents house in Chesterfield continuing to build our team of financial ministry partners. Grandma and Grandpa are enjoying having their first grandchild around. So are Aunt Margaret and Uncle Tim... and Copper, the dog. He likes to lick Lucy.

We are planning to stay here three more weeks, go home for a week, then head to Georgia to (prayerfully and hopefully) finish up our support raising!

Lucy has a cold...

... which brings new anxieties as I'm sure every mom and dad experience. There have been several times in the past couple of months that I've just been so anxious. I used to say that I'm not prone to worrying; that it's always been easy for me to trust the Lord. Ha! Just as the onset of marriage brought more of my sin to light, parenthood brings even more to the surface.

What if something bad happens? What if she can't breath? What if the worst happens?

Whenever these thoughts bounce around in my head, it's as if the Lord asks "Are you really trusting me? Are you really believing that I am sovereign? That I am taking care of Lucy? That whatever happens, it is my will and ultimately for your good?"

I feel as though in this new stage of Mommyhood, I am constantly reminded of of my sinful heart; how I am prone to worry, prone to anger, prone to laziness. Praise the Lord for His grace and His Spirit that allows me to conquer sin and start afresh a million times a day. I so need Him. I need Him to be the wife and mom that I want to be.

All sorts of new things

Lucy is learning new things every day and developing in to quite a little bubbly personality. She loves to smile, laugh, and yell. Also, chewing on everything and grabbing everything are among her favorite things to do. Her favorite toy right now is a light purple butterfly from her gym that has crinkly paper inside. She is on the verge of rolling over (she sometimes scoots a little) and seems as though she will get teeth very soon.

Our baby is absolutely spoiled because she has so many people who are ready and willing to play with her whenever she wants. She has loved being at Grandma and Grandpa's house (Pete's parents) with her aunts and uncles.

Practicing standing with Aunt Margaret:

Sitting with Uncle James:

(Check out the drool all over her shirt!)

Playing with Uncle Tim:

Lifting her head up:

(She's in the 90% percentile in head circumference!)

Laughing Lucy

Lucy got up early this morning to eat (circa 6:00), and after a nice early breakfast, she decided she didn't want to go back to sleep, despite my and Michaela's wishes. We tried to get to sleep for fifteen minutes or so by just ignoring what sounded like her best impression at an owl call, but it proved fruitless, so I got up and came downstairs to play with her.

Sometimes she acts really ticklish and laughs, and other times she just seems irritated with it. I was glad to see this morning was one of the former, and got a fun clip of her laughing it up.

Time has flown!

Well, actually, time has gone by at the same rate it always has, but it seems like its going faster than normal as our little one grows bigger everyday. Lucy is 16 weeks old and almost 4 months! She loves to sit (and stand) with support, grab things, play, talk/coo, laugh, put things in her mouth, and roll from side to side. Its amazing how many new things she can do everyday. She has thoroughly delighted everyone we've seen while staying here in Marietta.On that note, we are very much looking forward to seeing the family in St. Louis in about 2 weeks. Lucy misses her Grandpa, Grandma, Aunts and Uncles- she was only 3 weeks old when she saw them last!

Here are some of the many pictures we've taken this month:

Sitting in the Bumbo seat.

Lucy loves the Beatles.

So sweet.

Lucy's 4th of July outifit complete with cowgirl boots.

Lucy loves playing in the exersaucer... until she gets tired after a few minutes.

Lucy Talks, Sort Of...

We shot this little diddy today after we cleaned our little one up a bit. We were happy to catch her "talking," which is something she just started doing a couple weeks ago that keeps getting louder and more frequent. Seems she's discovered that she can make noise without crying.

Lucy - almost three months!

Lucy has had the chance to meet many family members over the past few weeks! She loves being around people, looking around, and "talking" quite a bit. She had her first shots at 9 weeks which was quite an experience for her mommy, but got some pretty nice Disney princess band-aids to help her feel better of course. Last weekend she went on her first hike with Daddy, Mommy, and Pop in the Smoky Mountains (during the Young family reunion.) She had fun in her front carrier looking around at everything. She also has loved going to the church nursery (at JFBC, my parent's church) every Sunday and Wednesday for the past few weeks. She's growing up so fast!!

Our little sleeper

Lucy slept 10 hours last night! When I went in to get her this morning at 8:00, she was wide-eyed and then she gave me a big smile. Recently she has been coo-ing a lot, laughing, and loving playing in her new baby gym that Nana got her. She sometimes accidentally grabs her toys and then gets really excited. She likes kicking and sometimes enjoys her tummy time.

Lucy is 10 weeks old!

We wanted to share some pictures with you all from the last few weeks. Lucy has been smiling a lot and we're having a lot of fun with her!

Right after eating is usually Lucy's happiest time. It's also Daddy's happiest time, so we understand. We got a few great shots of her and Mommy a few days ago.


Lucy's Daddy went to a Braves game last week with Pop and Uncles Jacob, Luke, and Aaron. She stayed at home and cheered us on. Don't worry, we're a divided household, so Lucy's also a die-hard Cardinals fan.


Isn't she a sweetheart?


She's lots of fun when she smiles and laughs with us. She looks great in this dress that Grandma Avery gave her.

Lucy's Dedication

A couple of Sundays ago we dedicated Lucy at my parent's church in one of the morning services. This is simply a brief time in the service when we dedicate her to the Lord, promising to raise her in a Christian home and teach her how to follow Christ.

Lucy's life verse is Acts 13:47

" For this is what the Lord has commanded us: "I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth."

"Lucy" means light. It is our prayer that she will be a light to others by sharing Christ with them.

Right beforehand, we got Lucy dressed in her beautiful dress. This dress is very special because all of Pete's siblings wore it for their baptisms! We were honored to have Lucy wear it too.

Lucy got to meet her "GGpa" and "GGma" who came for her dedication.


The rest of the day, Lucy wore the dress that I (Michaela) came home from the hospital in when I was a baby!

More Photos

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks.

Lucy met her (other!) great-grandmother ("G-G-Ma") a few weeks ago
and I was able to get a few smiles out of her while GGMa held her.



Lucy loves watching Jack Bauer tear it up on 24 with Mommy and Daddy.
You can see how intense her focus is. No, I'm kidding - it will be many many years
before she gets to watch anything as rough as 24. :)


Of course, we've already begun Lucy's music lessons. She's not very good.

But she is improving, slowly.

This was a particularly challenging Franz Liszt etude
that required her full attention on the music.

A Sad and Tired Lucy

We're definitely beginning to pick up on Lucy's different cries for different occasions. This is her cry when she's tired, and we think it's a little bit hilarious, so we recorded it. We are heartily convinced that filming our child crying does not make us bad parents. And yes, we put her down for bed right after this :).

Funny (and sometime's a little gross) moments

In the past 24 hours, Lucy has decided she didn't want everything she was getting rid of to stay in her diaper. The first incident was while I was in orchestra practice and left her with Pete- thank goodness we brought an extra outfit to church. The second happened tonight during dinner. My mom picked her up to discover this:


Lucy seems like she's been trying to talk to us lately and also makes some amusing faces. Also, her cry is really sweet and cute sometimes, and Pete thinks it's funny. We do, however, get sad when she cries for longer periods of time and we can't figure out what's wrong. We will post a cute clip of her crying soon.

Marietta

We have been enjoying our time in Marietta since we got in about a week ago. Just in case you're unaware of why we're here, we came down to visit my (Michaela's) hometown in order to continue to look for financial ministry partners. Our hope is to find many who will want to partner with us to reach students for Christ in Central Illinois. Lucy has enjoyed visiting her Nana and Pop, and was so happy to meet her Uncles Aaron, Luke, and Jacob!

Lucy has been a wonderful baby! Some recent events in her life include...

-Sitting through my brothers' band concert (3 hours long) completely calm and awake (most of the time)!

-For the past few nights, sleeping 6-7 hours straight, which has made all three of us, not to mention my family, very happy.


-Her cord finally coming off at 5 weeks!

-Growing 3 inches since birth.

-Meeting quite a few new people.

-Smiling a lot.

She does have her fussy moments though. :)

Lucy in her swing!

We tried to upload this about a month ago, but our internet wasn't working well, and then we forgot about it until now. Sorry for the constant need for our camera to be adjusting its focus!

Trip to St. Louis

Last week our family made a trip to St. Louis to visit Pete's family and work on our ministry partner development for Campus Crusade. We had such a great time introducing Lucy to family and friends, and having her spend time with her Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Margaret, and Uncle Tim! She also got to meet her Great-Grandma.

We've discovered that she is a great traveler. She also loves to smile! Here are some pictures from the week.