Baby shopping

My friend Lauren took me to a couple discount kid stores yesterday.
Here they are:

1. Puddleduds- AWESOME little store in Scottsdale. They have name brand items for $4/$5 dollars. Some things were close to $10, but once Sophi needs clothes, I'm going back! Can't beat getting a sweater for $4!! I got Sophi a How the Grinch Stole Christmas long-sleeve shirt for $6! It's super considering how much I love the Grinch. :)

2. Kid to Kid- This place wasn't as cheap, but they take your old items and give you cash. They have clothes, toys, books. Pretty neat if you can trade old items for new.

Baby shopping always puts me in a good mood!! It made me think, why is it that once you are a mom you shop more for your baby than yourself?

Father's day video

Check out my video I made for my Pa for Father's Day! Deric taught me how to use his video program and I created it all by myself. I think our family has some great skills! :)
Some of the words get cut off b/c I made it in widescreen format. Hopefully you'll be able to figure out the missing words okay.

Father's day and Sophi's first swim

Happy Father's Day!

Deric had a great first Father's Day!! We both got a little cat nap after church and went over to my parent's house. Sophi got to go in the pool for the first time. The water was a little chilly, so it was hard for her to relax. I think she also thought, "WHAT IS THIS?" When she is scared, she tenses up and holds up her arms. The entire 30 min. we were in there, she was tense. She only cried towards the end when she was done. Sophi really liked (well, we think) when Daddy made motorboat noises and when he moved her around. We're excited to try swimming with Sophi again!

Ready to hit the pool!

Sophi and the motorboat :)
Daddy needing a tan.

Sophi all tense.. not sure what is going on!

Job possibility

So I have a job interview tomorrow!! I'm hoping it works out. It's at North Phoenix Baptist Church through their preschool.
We will see!! Keep me in your prayers. :)

B/c I'm bored..

Each month I've been taking pictures of Sophi and her bird. I'm totally bored right now so I decided to post the pictures for all to see her growth!

3 days old

2 weeks old

1 month

2 months

3 months

JOY

It's amazing what God can do to your heart once you are honest with yourself and decide that life is good.
I've found myself several times this week really having the joy of the Lord. When I step back to think of everything I'm truly blessed to have, all of life's hard "things" disappear.

Psalm 126:3
The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

Job 8:21
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.


Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

Psalm 94:19
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.

I just love her so much!!

Sophi made her first trip to the mall today.She did great!! We met my friend Diane and her son Jordan. Sophi loved watching all the kids play. I got to enjoy my Starbucks and chat. It was a fabulous morning!!

Vacation

Today I got super excited to go on vacation!! We're going to Nebraska for almost 2 weeks to visit my family. ALL of my relatives live in the small farm town of Hastings, Ne. We will get to be there during July 4th, which Deric is excited for! YEAH for buying fireworks!
Sophi will get to go on her first plane ride, which makes me a bit nervous. But I'm sure she'll do great!
While we are in Nebraska we will be able to see our best friends Jan and Neil who moved to Omaha last October. We also are going to get our family pictures down by my lifetime friend Allison. She is an AWESOME photographer! She also will be taking a few solo shots of Sophi. I'm still trying to figure out our wardrobes, mostly for me, but I still have a couple weeks to check out the stores for a cute top.
We also get to take a HUGE family picture with all the cousins, etc. My great-grandma is still alive, so we get to take a 5 generation picture. I think that is SO neat that Sophi has a great-great grandma. :)
My Grandma Kennedy is also celebrating her 70th Birthday, so we get to have a big party honoring her. It will be very busy, but I'm really excited to show Deric where I lived and for him to see my grandparent's farm.
Deric has to return to Arizona early to squeeze in some work before Jr. High camp, so that means Sophi and I will be away from him for 9 days!! That is the longest we've ever been apart. Thankfully, my parents/siblings will be in Neb. too AND we have the same flight home. There will be plenty of people to love on Sophi.
I know it will be a great vacation. I'm a little nervous about the humidity and those dreaded mosquitoes. It will be great to see family and friends. I can't wait!!

YEAH FOR VACATION!!

Happy 3 month Birthday Sophi!

Our baby is 3 months old today!
Here are some things about Sophi at 3 months:
*Sophi is rolling over (she is sneaky and does it when I'm not looking!)
*Sophi loves music, especially dance music.
*Sophi loves t.v. shows, especially those with music. She enjoys Barney so far.
*She falls asleep on her own. We have a "bedtime" routine and we lay her down. However, she has a hard time falling asleep on her own at bedtime. She prefers Daddy's bouncing then.
*She continues to enjoy watching fans, mobiles, and any dangling objects.
*She likes reading books. Her favorite characters include: Ernie and Elmo.
*Sophi can grasp and hold objects if you place them in her hands. She recently has tried reaching for objects on her own.
*She is talking more and more. Smiling more and more. She often smiles for the camera. (or Daddy just gets her at the right time :) ).
*She likes going on walks and flying like Super Woman.
*Her top favorite things would be: 1. getting her diaper changed. 2. eating. 3. sucking on her hands.

Contentment

I haven't really cared too much about reading my Bible. I don't know what it is. I've never really had this "problem" before. Its weird, I've been having a lot of questions about God lately. I'm having a hard time understanding his purposes. Some things I know I probably will never receive answers to, but I'm still struggling with that. The irony is, the one place that could probably give me some peace I don't want to seek.
See I've been a Christian since I was 5. People used to tease me for knowing too much about the Bible. I can quote verse after verse. Since I was in junior high, I started daily quiet time. Once I left college, I really had to try hard to continue my relationship with God. I think going to a Christian college was a blessing, but somewhere inside I think I turned the Bible into a textbook. My faith has always been just that, faith. I never questioned reasons "why", never was angry at God, just always trusted that He knew what He was doing and down the road I may come to understand.
Ever since my miscarriage last year, the questions have been a flooding. My biggest question (which has many parts) is "Why does God open doors in my life, but doesn't allow me to walk through them? Why does He open the door for a sneak peak and then close that door?" As awful as this sounds, I sometimes see God opening the door saying, "See this. See what you could have. HAHA! You are NOT going to get it!" Now I know, I KNOW, God does not do this.
I frankly am tired of the "God has a purpose" response from everyone. That answer doesn't really answer my questions. It doesn't make you feel better. It doesn't make life any easier and it doesn't pay my bills.
Like I said in a past post, I'm a work in progress. I spend time thinking a lot. My love for God is lukewarm. Just admitting that makes me want to throw up, since I know God does not like lukewarm people. But it's the truth.
This all being said, I decided to pick up my devotional book for Mom's today. I just turned to a page and started reading. It is titled: Contentment. This sort devotion doesn't really answer my questions, but challenged me to find contentment and to be more thankful instead of thinking "poor,poor me." Contentment is something that goes against society. I enjoy going out and shopping, it actually makes me feel better. So being content with what I have now, is really difficult. Anways..

Here's the devotion:
"If we could just buy a bigger house, I'd be happy." "I wish my husband would get a better paying job." "I wish I had some time to myself." "If I could lose some weight, had better hair, were prettier...."
You may be unaware of how many times during the day you express your lack of contentment. The apostle Paul wrote, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation."
The secret of contentment lies not focusing upon what you lack, but in concentrating deeply upon those things of value which you have been entrusted. For instance, when you learn to value the people in your life appropriately, material things diminish in importance and you find contentment in your relationships. When you learn to cherish truth and spiritual growth, temporal things pale in comparison and you experience great joy. When you learn to value integrity, nurture humility, love unconditionally, and become more invested in the happiness of others than in yourself, the pettiness of dissatisfaction melts away and the result is abundant life.
Contentment is contagious. It is one of those elusive traits that children learn more effectively by example than any other way. So the question is, have you learned the secret of being content? If not, you can begin changing today. The result is you will be more happier and your children more at peace.
Verse:
"Godliness with contentment is great gain. If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." 1 Timothy 6:6,8

I can't promise I will wake up tomorrow totally content. (Maybe if all my bills were paid I would.. just kidding). I know I am going to try hard this week at being content and working on my relationships with people. I know some day Sophi will really follow everything I'm doing and saying, so I need to work on some things before that. No pressure, right?

Being a Mom is hard

Today's brunch inspired me to get real. Being a Mom is hard. There are so many things great about being a Mom. But recently I've found out it is SO easy to loose your identity. I'm known as Deric's wife. I'm known as Sophi's mom. What about before that? I was very hard working, eager to learn, fun, goofy, and most importantly- my relationship with God was very close.
I don't know how it happened..somewhere between pregnancy, birth, and current life I've been forgetting who I was. It has been so easy to only read baby books, listen to baby music, talk about baby things. I want to sleep instead of talk or read my Bible. I want to cry instead of taking a shower. I want to eat instead of working out. And, yes, it's difficult to admit, I want to leave the house instead of spending "time" with my husband.
I've been really working hard this week not to be such a Debbie Downer. I've done some deep cleaning that I've been making excuses about no doing. I've worked hard at being HAPPY and full of joy when Deric comes home. But still some things are really difficult. I keep thinking, "if only my face would stop breaking out and I could wear my size 6 clothes again and my hair was dyed and my skin was tan, everything would be okay."
I don't really have anything encouraging, just to say I'm a work in progress. I'm trying to find me again while being Sophi's mom and Deric's wife. Those things I wouldn't trade for anything. :)

Getting old

Sometimes I wish I could stop time. I don't mind growing up, I just want others around me to stop growing. It's weird to think that my baby sister is out of high school. It's weird to think my baby brother Josh is going into high school. It's even harder for me to see that Sophi IS getting bigger.
It started Monday night when I was looking at her newborn picture on her wall. She was SO tiny with red skin, TONS of hair, and very very skinny fingers and toes. That led me to look at other newborn pictures of her. I started thinking, "I don't even remember what she first looked like!" (Which is sort of not true.. I tend to look at pictures of her ALL the time!) I was in awe of how fast she has changed.
ANYWAYS...
In Sophi's room we have an extra dresser in her closet. Before she was born I filled a drawer with clothes 3-6month. Other drawers are also filled with clothes that are bigger. Well I've been noticing that her socks were beginning to look to tight, so I decided to pull some bigger ones out. That led me to look at the outfits in the 3-6month drawer. I realized that she could wear those!! It led me to tears as I dressed Sophi in an outfit marked 3months. I cried my way through all her newborn outfits and realized, maybe they are too small. I saved a couple of my favorite ones to try to squeeze her in one last time.
I finally was okay with the cute outfit she was wearing when she decided to roll over back to belly!! That led to more tears..from both of us!! (Sophi HATES being on her belly!)
The rest of the day was filled with laughter and smiles as I enjoyed Sophi talking and playing with me. Until.....
Until I tried to put on her pjs for bed!! These pjs are my FAVORITE! They are yellow with giraffes on them. These pjs were the very first pjs we put her in when she came home from the hospital. These pjs are now WAY TOO SMALL!! As you can guess the tears came a rolling. Deric jokingly told Sophi to stop growing because she's making Mommy cry. Secretly I wished it was true. I wish I could not just stop time, but rewind time. Even though those first few weeks of being a new mom are difficult, I miss them. Sophi has grown so fast, it makes me want to see her small all over again. (I know what you are thinking, "Jess, she's only 3 months old!! She's still small!") But before I know it, she'll be crawling, walking, driving, getting married and having babies!!
Well I guess I should start taking pictures today! I can't forget what she looked like at 12 weeks!! :)

I've attached a picture of Sophi in her giraffe pjs. She was 3 days old. :) The next picture is what she looks like now at 12 weeks.