And we have a tooth folks.

It finally came through!  Keira's been teething for many weeks now and I could tell that just recently it was really hurting her.  All of a sudden she hasn't been taking the bottle anymore and her sudden interest in her paci (not to suck...just to chew on) had definitely picked up.  She's been more fussy than normal and I just had a feeling that it was going to poke it's way through her gums any day now.  I kept feeling around and yesterday morning I felt some bumps of the top of a tooth and today I for sure felt it and could even see the surface of it (when she would let me get a glance in her mouth).  Finally!  Except that's just one of many yet to come!!  :)

I think we've finally made it through the time change.  It didn't take too long and I think she's finally adjusted to the new schedule.  We're still working our way back up to 7:00 bedtime but the last 3 mornings she has slept in until 7:40 or so...yesterday she woke up at 8!  Yeah!!  Being the schedule freak I am, I was nervous about it and felt like we finally had things down...and then it all changes!  I suppose that's how it is with babies though and I just need to make the adjustments and loosen up a bit.

On a side note...don't you just want to EAT up these thighs!!  Oh how I love my girl!!!

She's onto solids.

I wanted to make sure I write down the process I've been using with Keira so for my next baby, I can look back and use it as a reference.  I will admit, introducing solids has made me a little nervous.  Every time I feed Keira, I'm so scared she's going to have some crazy allergic reaction and not be able to breathe or she's going to choke and I'm not going to know what to do.  I make sure to mush, mush, mush up what I'm feeding her really good, but there's still a little part of me that gets nervous.  Especially with all of Pete's allergies...I think that's why I've been so cautious.

I gave Keira her first food (rice cereal) when my mom was here back in the middle of September.  Keira was just at 5 months and she loved it and did great!!  :)

Mmmm....what's that Mom??

I'm ready, let's do this eating thing!

Love it!!

We made use of the bumbo chair and that worked until we got her a big girl high chair!  :)  I, of course, researched all the high chairs and this one got 5 stars out of 193 reviews on the babiesrus website.  But don't think I spent $179 on a high chair.  I did my research and hunted and hunted and got this exact one for $86 on ebay.  Yes, the waiting paid off, I'm a bargain shopper!!  :)  Here's my girl in her new chair - 

Anyways, the eating has been going very well and Keira is loving solids.  I started with the rice cereal and then introduced bananas and then avocado.  At first Keira HATED avocado (she gagged a few times while I was giving it to her).  My mom suggested adding some cereal and breastmilk to it to soften the taste and that helped a ton.  She now loves it and gobbles it up every time I feed it to her!

I knew I wanted to make my own baby food since it was so much cheaper.  One jar of baby food is $0.79 at the store and there's no way I was going to buy a ton of those when I could make about 10x that much by doing it myself for $3.00.  I went to the grocery store and bought pears, peas, squash, sweet potato, peaches and apples.  I then had a "baby food making morning" and went to town.  I cooked the sweet potato and squash and steamed the apples and pears and peaches.  After a ton of dirty dishes, pureeing, and lots of scooping into ice cube trays and freezing, what I was left with afterwards was many, many frozen cubes of baby food that will hopefully last us for another month or so.  For a grand total of $14, I will feed my daughter healthy, homemade food for a good month.  :)  I think I'll do it this way for awhile and while the convenience of baby food jars is nice, I'm all up for saving money.  Next...bring on the Cheerios.  :) (well maybe not for a couple months)

What kind of mom am I??

I was thinking this morning of the way that I "mother" Keira and I got to thinking about all the different kind of "mom's" there are out there.  As I've gone through this whole process of being pregnant and now parenting the first 6 months of Keira's life, I'm realizing that the people I've gone to and asked questions to are people I see myself with similar parenting styles.  So here are the different types of mom's I've thought of:

* Organic Mom - I see this mom as the mom who buys all organic food, organic bedding and clothes, cloth diapers, has a super tight reign on what her kids are doing, when they are doing it, who they are friends with, what they eat, carries hand sanitizer for anyone who wants to touch her baby...basically a mom who is super, super intentional about anything and everything that has to do with parenting and raising her kids in the "right" way and making sure that they aren't subject to any "germs" so to say.

* Relaxed Mom - This mom is the one who is parenting in the way that she lives her own life - super relaxed.  Not super strict, no schedule, when the baby naps (IF the baby naps) is different everyday.  No set bedtime and her schedule didn't change one bit when the baby was born.  She carts the baby around to and from whatever she has to do that day.  The baby fits into HER schedule, not the other way around.  Super, super flexible.

* Schedule Mom - Schedule, schedule, schedule....down to the minute.  This mom has her baby tired at the exact minute every day and in bed in the exact same position.  Eating is all planned out and thought through very strategically.  Waketime is intentional and not overstimulating.  Babies schedule is first and the mom works around nap time(s).

* Do-It-Yourself Mom - This is the mom who doesn't buy anything new and makes all the baby clothing and bedding and blankets and toys.  Her lifelong dream has been to be a homemaker and a homecooked dinner is on the table every evening.

(I'm sure there are plenty more but these are just the few I thought of this morning)

It's been an interesting process to watch myself parent and learn how I do things.  It's funny because before I was a parent myself, I would look at the things that I saw other moms doing and often times be like "Are you kidding me?!?!  Ease up!!" or "Seriously, you baby has to be exposed to germs at some point.  That's why they are always sick!"  Now that I'm there myself...I find myself doing some of the things that I would get so annoyed by before parenting.  For instance...if I had to put myself into one of the categories above, I would probably place myself in the scheduled mom category.  I am a HUGE fan of routine and schedules and predictability.  This has been a major adjustment and at the beginning was extremely hard for me.  Keira didn't always sleep when I wanted her to or eat when she needed to which would throw me off.  It was frustrating and took me a few months to ease up.  This is kinda OCD and I fully admit this, but I keep track of (and have been since she was 6 weeks old) everything Keira does on my phone using an app called "Total Baby".  Everything from diapers (wet, poopy, what kind of poop), sleep schedule, eating schedule (what side, all her solids she eats, bottles), baths, medicine, vitamins, doctor's appointments, growth, vaccines.  It's kinda ridiculous....I am fully aware of that.  :)  Regardless...it's my brain.  Since not every day is the same (to an extent), I'm so dependent on watching my phone.

Anyways, all this to say, some of the things I'm now doing as a parent myself have surprised me.  I am a super intentional person and while I don't fall into the "organic" category... I do think about almost everything that has to do with or happens to Keira and how it's going to effect her now and in the future. I try to be intentional with the way that I talk to her and interact with her and intentional in the ways that I pray for and with her.  Before she was born I read anything and everything about what was happening to her and how she was growing.  When she's approaching a new stage, I research it to a large extent and learn everything I can about how to do it right and the most effectively.

So these were just a few of the thoughts running through my head this morning.  Keira is growing like a WEED (especially since she started eating solids....I feel like she's gained like 10 pounds!) haha.  She is SUCH a JOY these days and her laughs and kisses and giggles make me fall more in love with this little girl than I ever, ever could have imagined.  It's the deepest, most intense love (besides my husband) that I've experienced.  I guess when I reread through this before I hit the post button, the question that came to mind is not what kind of mom am I but what kind of mom does GOD want me to be?  He has given us the gift of Keira Blair and how can I parent her in the way that God desires her to be raised?  Something to think about I suppose.  Anyways...those are the thoughts going through my head.  God help me to raise this little girl in a way that honors you and may she grow up to have a kind, gentle, loving spirit.  May she come to know you at a young age and may her heart always seek to know you more.  Thank you for the blessing of my sweet, sweet baby girl!!

September

It's been almost a month since I've written last.  Not a ton has happened but I still feel the need to keep up with my blogging so I don't get too far behind.  :)

A few weeks ago over Labor Day weekend Ben, Stacy, Jake & Skye came to visit.  They haven't seen Keira yet so it was so fun to have them visit.  Whenever I hear friends talk about how they don't like their inlaws or husbands family, I'm so grateful that I can honestly say that I LOVE my second family!!  They really are that...my second family.  I got so blessed to get another set of amazing parents and Pete's brother and sister, their spouses and kids are so much fun to be around.  I definitely look forward to spending holidays with them.  Thank you Jesus!!  Here are some pictures from the weekend...check out how much Keira looks like Skye as a baby!!

Jake & Keira

Skye & Keira

Stacy & Keira

Skye at 4 months...crazy how much they look alike!!

September 20th (last Monday) was Pete and I's 2 year anniversary.  It was wonderful!  The Thursday before my mom surprised me and showed up at our door and was staying through Monday.  It was so great to have her here and so fun for her to see Keira.  Saturday night we left Keira with Grandma and Pete and I left for a night away.  This was the longest time I've been without her since she's been born and it was great!  Yes, I missed her like crazy, but it was so great to just focus on Pete.  Even at home or after she's gone to bed, there is still the monitor that is on or her little face watching us as she plays in her exersaucer.  While she doesn't always require a ton of attention, it was nice to shift my focus completely to my husband.  He got us a hotel and we left around 3 on Saturday.  We swam in the pool and hot tub, went to dinner at On the Border, walked around the mall for a bit, went to Party City, got ice cream at Marble Slab and then went to the cheap theater to see the third Twilight movie.  Sunday morning we slept in and got McDonalds for breakfast and watched 500 Days of Summer in bed.  :)  It was so relaxing and just made me once again realize how in love with that man I really am!  I'm so lucky!!  And knowing that Keira was in great hands made it all the better!!  It was a perfect anniversary!  (Oh and on our actual anniversary he got me a dozen roses and made a wonderful dinner.)  I mean, who wouldn't love this man....????

mmmm....that's hotness!!  :)

Keira is quickly approaching 6 months which just blows me away!!  She's well on her way to sitting on her own and has been talking up a storm lately.  It's so fun to watch her learn different sounds and do funny things with her mouth.  She's been curling her tongue lately which just cracks me up!  She is SUCH a joy and I am so enjoying this stage!!  She's starting to be aware of where I am...whether I'm there or not.  Whenever a stranger comes up to her or holds her, she immediately looks for me to see that I'm still there and what I think about this new person.  I love being her security.  I also fed her cereal when my mom was here.  She just loved it!!  Although, since she's such a spitter...I'm not so much looking forward to the green and orange and colored spit up once she starts eating things that aren't white in color haha.  Her spitting has toned down a bit though so hopefully that will just continue and we'll be good.

Lord be blessed

I'm a few weeks into my new thirty-one business and I'm totally loving it!!  As I think about it, I think it's kinda funny because I was totally never a big fan of these types of things, but now that I'm doing it...I've realized it's perfect for me.  :)  I love people and I love parties.  Seriously, and my JOB is to work with both of those things!!  And the fact that I'm selling fun girly things is even better!!!  I would consider myself a fairly motivated person so I've set up my "office" downstairs and have gotten supplies and organized my files.  I literally feel like I have a little work place in my own house.  It's AWESOME!  :)  I'm just so anxious to get started with having the parties and figuring out how to actually place orders and get that all to work.  I love thinking of ways to give hosting incentives and challenging myself to be creative.

I was watching an online training video the other night and had Keira on my lap.  As I sat there in my sweats with my daughter on my lap and I was "working", I thought to myself...this is what I want to do!  I have always for as long as I can remember wanted to stay home with my babies and now that I'm doing it, I can't imagine going back to work full time.  I absolutely love that I don't dread Monday morning or have a sinking feeling in my gut Sunday afternoon knowing that the work week is starting all over again.  Every day is the same and I just absolutely LOVE it!!

Now with this business, when Keira's napping, I can keep myself busy and give myself something to work towards.  I've got 7 parties booked through October and am hoping to get at least 5 more between now and when we go home the second week of October.

For the first time since we've moved to Kansas, I finally feel like this is something I am just loving doing and want to really pursue.  Again, I laugh at myself when I read that sentence knowing what it's about cause I never thought I'd be saying that about doing in-home parties...but I am.  I feel like the Lord has given me this door and I've walked through and now there are so many opportunities to go from here.  And with that...he's allowing me to ultimately do what I've dreamed of doing...being a mom and raising my kids.

With that said, my prayer lately and my requests to those who have asked (or to some who haven't) is that I would be successful at this.  I feel weird even writing that and saying it but I want to be successful not for the money in any way shape or form.  I want to be successful so that I will be able to make this a full time thing and I won't have to do any other part time job as well.  I'm still signed up to substitute teach and I'm willing to do that, but I really don't want to.  I'm asking the Lord to provide parties and hostesses so that I will be able to continue to stay home with Keira.

At the beginning of each party I will give God the glory and tell the girls there why I'm doing what I'm doing.  I'm trusting that He'll provide in ways I've never imagined.  Through this new journey, my hope is that the Lord will be blessed!!

This is my theme verse for my new ministry/job and my verse for this next year of my life:
Jeremiah 33:9 - Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.

thirty-one

About a month or so ago, I had an interview for a part time office job at the Crisis Pregnancy Center.  While the job seemed like it would be great and all, I was really praying that God would make it clear to me as to whether that was the road He wanted me to go or not.  Well....I came home from the interview and cried 4 times that afternoon.  Not cause it went bad or anything, it was actually a great interview and the lady who I met with was wonderful.  I cried because the thought of going back to an office knowing my baby was home with someone else was heart breaking to me.  I couldn't stand the thought of it and as I sat at my kitchen counter, I realized I had my answer.  I was praying and as I asked the Lord if that wasn't it, what was?  I looked down and there was a little business card from a lady who was a Scentsy Candle rep.  They do in home parties selling candles.  Like most of those parties offer you can "work at home, spend more time with the people you love and make as much money as you'd want to".  Anyways, I read that and I thought maybe I could do that.  All that to say...no...I didn't sign up with Scentsy Candles.  But I did sign up with a company called thirty-one.  I had heard of it a few times but never really looked at what they had to offer.  After much thought and prayer, I decided to do it.

Now let me say that I've never been a huge fan of these types of parties and now that I'm actually a rep for one of them surprises even me.  However, my perspective going into it is if it works, awesome.  If not, no big deal.  I'm not committing to specific hours on specific days and I have to be there or I'm fired.  And that flexibility of this job makes it worth a try.  My desire is to stay home with my girl and if this makes it more possible, then I'm all in.

With that said, I've gotten my start up box and I've been pleasantly surprised with the product.  I thought it was just bags but they offer everything from purses, wallets, stationary, coasters, totes, luggage, garment bags, cosmetic bags, etc.  And everything can be embroidered.  Anyways, the catalog is awesome and offers a TON of options.  I like it because it can appeal to every woman...age 15 or age 50.  We all carry purses or bags or totes and so why not make them cute.

I've always been the party planner so it's actually kinda fun for me to throw parties for my "job".  :)  And I would consider myself a highly motivated person so thinking of new ways to get contacts is actually fun for me.  I don't want to ever be perceived as the pushy "have a party?!?!" person so I don't want to ever pressure someone to have a party.  But that is how I will be successful so I'm just praying and hoping that the product sells itself and people are interested.

I've completely committed this ministry/job to the Lord. That night that I had the interview I was having a quiet time and I read Jeremiah 33:9 - "Then this city will bring me renown, joy, praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it." When I considered the idea of being one of these consultants and was asking God about it, I told him that if it did work out, that before every party I would, like the verse says, bring Him joy, praise and honor.  I'm trusting Him to provide the "good things" and "abundant prosperity and peace" because of it.

So with that said, I now own my own business?!?!  Weird to even say that.  :)  I'm looking for people to host parties and while I may not come right out and ask you, let me know if you're interested or would even just like to order something.  The website is www.mythirtyone.com/juliegoodman and you can view the whole catalog online.  Again, I don't want to be that pushy party person, but if you're interested, just let me know.

It's all for God's glory and to spend as much time as I possibly can with the cutest little 4 month old baby girl.  Come on....wouldn't you want to look at this face all day long too????  :)

To lose a child....

Keira's down for a nap and I've been just drinking my coffee and reading and reflecting while I have a few minutes.  As I sat on my couch, I was asking the Lord to teach me through Keira.  As a child of God and now being a parent, I am seeing in a new way the love that God has for us as our Father.  Ever since Keira was born, I randomly get these horrid thoughts of things happening to her or her getting hurt.  I hate when I get them and immediately have to ask God to take them away because if I think about them for too long, it scares me to death.  I don't know where they come from, but I hate it when I get them.  I think it's shown me how deep my love for my daughter is even just 4 months into her precious life.  Pete is going to a funeral today of a student and asked me the other day if I would rather lose a child when they were very young, knowing that they would go to heaven, or lose them when they were older, having been able to live life with them, but also potentially not knowing if they would be in Heaven if they didn't choose Christ.  I literally couldn't even think too long about that question because the thought of losing Keira right now makes me sick to my stomach.  In the last 4 months, I've just seen how she is so apart of me and that little girl has worked herself into the core of my heart.

Anyways, all that to say, as I sat on the couch, I was wondering what God thinks when He loses a child.  When one of his children die without having chosen Christ, I can imagine it breaks his heart!!  He has formed us and made us from his own image and created us to live a life with the fullness of Christ, but when we choose otherwise.....  I've just been thinking about this student that died and while He once lived for Christ, the last few years of his life (from what I've been told), he rejected Christ and walked his own path...and now his life has been taken from him.  I can't even conceive of having to go through that as a parent.  Even writing this right now and thinking of that happening puts a terrible knot in my heart and a sick feeling in my stomach.

My job as Christ's ambassador is to share with others God's love for them.  I know Jesus and the power of his death and resurrection and God needs me to be a tangible voice for Him to others who don't know.  I don't want to ever lose a child and I know that He doesn't either.