The Pride of Parenthood – By M

I can’t lie that these past few months haven’t been difficult.  I don’t think I have continuously ran on this little sleep for this long of a period of time in my whole life; not even in college!  And the amount of new responsibility and change in routine has been beyond what I thought.  But it is so rewarding and so awesome to have our little boy in our arms and watch him as he has already grown so much in these few short months.

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(Newborn Josiah)

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(3 Month Old Josiah)

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It’s been so fun to see Josiah learn and grow.  He’s just now getting to the stage where he really looks at you and responds (sometimes) to the things you do.  He’s started to smile a ton, and the other day even gave his first little squeaky laugh.

It’s funny how being a parent really opens your eyes up to your own childhood and parents.  It’s funny to see things on the other side.  You really start to appreciate parenting a lot more.

One of the things that hit me today was how proud I am to be our baby’s dad.  The funniest part is that he hasn’t really done a whole lot or given me much reason to take much pride in him.  Most of the time he sleeps, cries, and/or poops.  But the times I just get to stare at him sleeping I think about how blessed I am.  When he laughs while we play or get’s excited because he made a silly noise or sat up, my heart is full of happiness.  I think about how much more proud I will be when he begins to walk and talk, and read and write; when he get’s into sports, or band, or school clubs.  I’m thankful for our little boy, but I’m also thankful to look back and see that I know my parents felt the same way for me when I was Josiah’s age.  The pride of being a parent is like nothing you have ever experienced before.  And I know that pride will continue to grow over the course of our baby boy’s life, and I can’t wait.

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Tell us your story… What or who is someone you are so proud of and why?

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-M

2 Years Later – By M

2 years ago (just a few days back) marks when we moved from Oklahoma down to southeast Texas.  It’s funny how time has flown so much and how much can change in such a relatively short amount of time.

It’s been such a blessing to be a part of Wesley church over these past two years.  I can’t lie that there are things that we miss –being far from basically any family (especially immediate), and experience the seasons with the weather (down here it’s basically hot, not so hot, and really hot!)– but we have also loved being at our new church and new home.

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Here’s sort of a Trip down memory lane since our move (PS… Some have links to previous blog posts):

– when we first arrived, we found out on a very first day at church about the Wesley Pumpkin Patch.  It was crazy overwhelming and made for a very long day, but after two complete Pumpkin seasons and heading into our third it’s been a blast and a great part of our ministry here.  It’s also been a fun opportunity for me to make it onto our local news stations every year.  In fact, one of my most memorable moments was being interviewed by Fox news my 3rd day on the job.  I had fun with that.

– That same day we left for IKEA in Houston and bought some new furniture!  It was my first trip and now I’m hooked.

– Staci went to her first Spurs game at the AT&T Center!

– We celebrated our 2nd anniversary up in Dallas!

– We spent our 3rd Christmas together in our third house, so we had to figure out how to decorate all over again.

– Went on my first Ski Trip!

– We began searching the housing market for when our apartment lease was up.

– My brother got married in Memphis and we got to road trip it up there together which was pretty fun!

– We jumped out of a plane!!!

– We found where we wanted to build our new home and began the process!  Before we new it we were moving in!

– Built my first porch on mission trip!

– Read all the Harry Potter Books and saw all the movies… umm… maybe 3 times….

– Found lots of new good music for all seasons!

– Moved to a new house!

– Got Pregnant!  And shared our story!  And found out he was a boy!

– Celebrated another holiday as a family… the first one in our new home!

– Celebrated our 3rd anniversary together in San Antonio!

– Had countless youth activities including: Christmas Parties, Halloween Parties, Mission Trips, Summer Camps, Retreats, A trip to Sacramento, CA, Beach Trips, Pool Parties, and tons more!

– Our Baby Boy was born!

And here we are starting our 3rd Pumpkin Patch season!  We can’t believe that it’s all flown by so fast (even though sometimes it feels like it’s been a really long, long journey)!  We have been so blessed in so many ways over these past 2 years and we are very thankful!  We look forward to the coming years with our sweet son and our new family unit!

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What have you been up to these past 2 years?
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– M