More pics

Here are some more pictures that I really liked from Jade's little photo shoot last week.

Pictures

About a week ago JB and I decided it was about time we had nice pictures taken of Jade, not just our silly little home shots.
Here are a few of the shots taken last week of Jade and all of us.

Most all of the pictures turned out wonderfully, granted Jade was a bit cranky and many of the photos are of her crying.

Pictures taken by Joel Sorrell

Recap of my first year of marriage

Feb '07

My Mother-in-Law came to visit to help out and meet her granddaughter Jade. The Colts won the super bowl. My siblings, Vanessa, Jo and Isaac all had birthdays, and CJ came out to meet his cousin (pictured below).
Jan '07
Our first child was born, all sweet and pink and adorable. Jonathan had his 26th birthday.

Dec '06

Our first Christmas together, parties and being very pregnant.

Nov '06

Vanessa had her first child, Christopher Jr. (C.J.) and we celebrated Thanksgiving with friends.

Oct '06

My brother from AK came out to visit us during his birthday and on his way back from visiting the family in MI. I started to get very noticably pregnant.

Sept '06

My 23rd birthday!!! We also went to a Seahawks vs. Cardinals game. My first Seahawks game was very exciting.

Aug '06

Business trip for JB back East, turned into a family fun trip for me.

Jonathan's parents came out to visit later that month, we took them to see Mt. Rainer, very nice weather!

April-July '06

Moving to WA, jogging, shopping, setting up house, playing with friends, lots of walks, drives having fun together.

March 18th, 2006

Getting married.

I was just looking at Jade today, she was all smiling and happy. Slowly I replayed in my brain everything that has happened this past year. I still can't believe that in one years time I got married, moved across country had a baby and met lots of new friends.

It has been a wonderful year, yet another to add to my wonderful life. While at times I find myself overwhelmed by all the happenings and often wish for life to slow down, I'm constantly amazed at what God has done in my life and all the wonderful blessings he has given to me.

This has been a wonderful first year of marriage, I couldn't be happier!

Poetry, anyone?

I found this quiz on Kelly's website and thought I'd try it out. I like to make up my own poems so I thought it made sense that I take it:) hee, hee. Its a super short quiz, you should take it!

I'm terza rima, and I talk and smile. Where others lock their rhymes and thoughts away I let mine out, and chatter all the while. I'm rarely on my own - a wasted day Is any day that's spent without a friend, With nothing much to do or hear or say. I like to be with people, and depend On company for being entertained; Which seems a good solution, in the end. What Poetry Form Are You?

So big!

Jade is growing really fast these days. She is a week away from 2 months and already starting to wear her three month size outfits.
I think she knows the camera is something to smile at, cause when she sees me holding it above her she loves to flash all her cutest smiles. She doesnt' hold them long enough for my camera to get them all...but I'm loving seeing her personality starting to shine through.

Life really is great right now, Jade is sleeping most of the night, is a pretty good girl during the day and things seem to be slowing down a bit for us.

Jade likes to "help" me with laundry and cooking and pretended to enjoy my attempts at trying to play the guitar yesterday. We make a great team:)

Dad's work

It was such a beautiful, sunny day today! Jade and I couldn't stay inside all afternoon, so we decided we'd take a nice walk towards JB's office. Jade got a kick out of her Daddys office, first she wanted to hang out with him, but then he took her around to meet all his co-workers.
It was a nice little visit and a lovely walk there and back.
After her big day of eating, sleeping, being pushed in a stroller, held by different people and seeing where her Daddy works...she is exhusted and is now taking a nap:)

Its all about the smiles

Jade wouldn't stop smiling/laughing at me today. There she was at my feet in her bouncy chair, while I worked for a few hours. Every few minutes I'd look down and there she would be showing off her beautiful smile.
Smiling for Jade can be a huge effort. She'll arch her back and reach her arms into the air and then, as though she is giving it all her strength she will flash a great big smile.

She usually follows up a smile with more stretches and giggles...it is very precious to watch.

I took this pic, cause my silly little girl loves to get her diaper changed. After she is all nice and clean she'll just lay on the changing table smiling up at me. Its as though she is giving me a "Thank you" for all the icky work of changing her diapers. lol

I know all I ever post these days is pictures of the baby, but with a face like that...who wouldn't be pulling their camera out every two seconds:)

Happy friday friends, hope you all have a great weekend!

Another walk

This morning was rainy and cold, I didn' think any outdoor activites would be possible. But by the afternoon the sun came out! Jade was laying in her crib and begged me to take her out for a walk in our nice new stroller. So, I bundled her up, grabbed my tennis shoes and off we went.
We saw many interesting things on our walk today, a few of the most memorable was the lady walking the skinniest, tiniest dog we had ever seen. As she was crossing the street with her miniture animal, she flipped her backpack to her other shoulder and a great big fish fillet...raw...came flying out of the pack. At first I thought it was a long slab of bread, but as we got closer to her I realized it was a fish. She walked over to her dirty piece of fish, looked around and then simply shrugged and walked away.
A little further down the road was a man in black with a scruffy beard and a huge Pepsi in his hand. When we first started following behind him, I thought he was talking to people who passed by us. But as we went further and no people were present I realized the man was mumbling what appeared to be poetry to himself. It was loud enough that I could hear his poem, but with cars passing I couldn't catch entire sentances and wondered if it was simply something he was making up as he went along.

Once Jade and I reached the port we decided to stop for a short break to take a picture. Here she is in her new stroller...

...and this is the close-up. Doesn't she look peaceful?

Walking back home we ran into many teenagers crowded around street corners, smoking and drinking colas. Guys in auto shops yelled at each other only to hush and stare as Jade and I strolled passed. One auto shop garage you could see inside the whole thing, plastered on the walls were old coca cola pin-up girl pictures that looked like they had been there for 30 years.

We passed the seafoam green thunderbird with "pilates" on the license plate...that car is always in the same spot every single day. A lady and her small son commented on how tiny Jade was and a boy and a girl couple were fighting so bad with each other I thought someone was gonna get hit.

The couple fighting upset poor Jade and we hurried home as fast as we could. By the time we got there though, Jade and fallen asleep, so I parked the stroller and decided to do some gardening. *sigh* I just love spring!

Things we saw on our walk today

The sun is shining and the weather is warm. Jade and I thought it would be a perfect afternoon for a brisk stroll. *sigh*

While we were walking we saw a dead bird on the side of the road *ew* two girls dressed like cowboys and a man all in black who said "Howdy" as we passed him. An old lady stopped us to say what a lovely girl Jade is and a boy road down our street (hill) on his belly on his skate board. I could't believe he could actually ride down the whole hill on his skateboard, on his belly...but by golly did he. We (both Jade and I) were very impressed.

That's it.

Dandruff, Joggers and getting back in the groove

Missi to Jonathan: "Honey, have you seen this?"
Jonathan: "what?"
Missi: "Your daughters hair. I can't believe this, but my six week old daughter has dandruff!!! *shock and horror* What do I do? What do I do?"
Jonathan: "Nothing, she's fine. See, its stupid that people often relate dandruff to a social status...if our baby already has it and she is obviously not a low life"
Missi: "I can't believe she has dandruff...I need to brush her hair"
*walking away to find the baby brush*
Jade: "waaaa!!!!"
(She doesn't like her hair brushed)

~~~~~~~

On the return of my husband from his time away taking the Bar, he proudly bestowed upon Jade and I a Jogging Stroller. Complete with cup holders for water bottles and coffee, cubbies for keys and cash, zippers to store whatever we couldn't fit in the cubbies and a rotating umbrella top. Thrilled out of my mind I determined (since the weather was not favorable) to take it for its first stroll in our mall. While my husband thought the trip to the mall, just to try out the stroller, was a bit odd we did it anyway and decided the jogging stroller was definatly a keeper.
It really is a great stroller, Jade loves it and so do I. We took it all over downtown on Sunday and then later took it out again for a walk by the harbor with some friends.

I can't wait til the weather warms up even more so all three of us can take it out and actually use it for what it was made for...Jogging!

~~~~~~

Today was my first day back to work. With only needing to work a few hours each day, I tired my best not to fret over anything. I woke up (er...Jade woke up) at 6am and after having breakfast and a quick shower, we began our work right away.

Jade did great while I worked, she sat in her bouncy chair at my feet, my foot gently keeping the seat bouncing at an even pace for her, while my fingers typed on my keyboard near the same speed. Most everything that I needed to do has been accomplished for today and I have complied a nice big list of everything else that should get done this week.
Now, all I have left to do is laundry, cleaning, cooking, doctors appintment, some errands and maybe a walk and a nap;) Hmmm....we'll see what I actually have time to get done. I feel like life is starting to return to normal now, things are coming back to how they were before I was pregnant and I'm looking forward to really getting back into the groove.

Cute pics of my precious baby in her Jogging stroller, will most likely follow soon. Maybe even some pics of my handsome husband. Happy Monday everyone!

The Bar

My husband has been out most of this week taking the Washington Bar. Jade and I have missed him terribly, all we can do is think about him, pray for him and cry ourselves to sleep (well...Jade does at least *wink*). He returns home this afternoon, so Jade decided to make him feel as welcome as possible upon his return. Therefore, for the past two hours she has been feverishly working on a "Welcome Home" sign...
Madly cooking up as many chocolate chip, peanut butter cookies as she can possibly bake...

And has vacuumed and dusted every room in the house!!

She is now very tired from all her efforts and decided a good book and a comfy rocking chair is the best way to relax while she awaits the return of her papa:)

We find out in May if JB passed the Bar or not...I'm sure I will blog about it when we do find out...keep up the prayers though, I do believe they still help even after the test has been taken;)

Our Visit

JB, Jade and I had a fabulous time with Nic, CJ and Steph! While they were visiting we took them to Seattle so they could experience what a real big city feels like;) Here we are eating at Pike's Place Market...yum!

Some random guy offered to take our picture, but it was so windy it was hard to actually get a good one.

Nic took this pic of Jade and I because she said we needed one in front of the store "House of Jade". Yes, that bundle of pink is my baby

We couldn't leave Seattle without a stop at the very first Starbucks, I got a carmel mocha while there...SO sweet!!

Rachelle decided we couldn't have so much fun all by ourselves and joined us for an evening to hang out. Aren't all our kiddos super cute? Kyri and CJ are only three days apart:)

When we weren't out shopping, eating and having fun, we let the cousins play together.

I got to sneak in as many hugs and kisses onto CJ as I could possible get...he's SO cute! And smiles all the time!!!

Steph became Jade's adoptive Aunt while she was here and I think Jade found this the most comfy position to sleep in.

hahahaha! I just love this pic!

We had a wonderful visit, I can't wait til we are all together again. Even JB was sad to see them go I think he liked having another man around the house, LOL! (he told me I couldn't post this pic...hee, hee)

My Sister and Steph are coming!

Woohoo!! (Missi singing) "Tomorrow, tomorrow...I'll love ya, tomorrow...it's only a day away!!!"
My older sis and my good friend and my tiny Nephew are all coming to visit me tomorrow! I found this fabulous picture of Nic, Kara and me in my photo archives...this is us striking our famous "Angels" pose at a work Christmas party a few years ago. lol!

I found this pic of Steph and me where we are at our friends wedding. *sigh* good times, good times.

This fabulous "foot" picture was taken during one of our hiking trips in Virginia.

And here is some of our group from that hiking trip. I'm not sure if Greg is trying to push Steph in or just get his hands dried off. hmm.

Sorry, Nic, I had to put this pic in...it's to funny! hahahaha! Kara, Kara my friend...your hair looks awesome! And Nic...rollers...lol! I LOVE it!

I'm so excited about our trip! I can't wait to see my nephew and see my sister and see my friend! I haven't seen everyone since August and it feels like a lifetime has passed since then. I'll post pics of our trip, cause I'm sure everyone is gonna wanna see how cute we all look together...plus, see what an exciting visit we are most likely to have:) AH! I'm so excited!

My life as a mom

Today marks one whole month that I have been a mom. It seems odd to me that only a month ago I was a very pregnant women at a bowling alley...bowling with friends.

I'd say "time sure does fly" but I must admit this has been quite the long month. Adapting to parenthood isn't as simple as I thought it would be. Those multiple midnight feedings take their toll on a body.

So my life goes something like this right now. Feeding Jade, changing Jade (both diaper and clothes), putting Jade down for a nap, trying to fit in some sort of domestic task (laundry, dishes, cleaning, etc) taking a quick nap, then starting it all over again. But who could get tired of that?

Look at this little bundle of joy:) Her little red face and pouty lips make me melt everytime I hold her.

Right now Jade is sleeping in her bouncy seat, tiny sounds of contentment are being uttered from her little mouth. I have the laundry going, dishes stacked to be washed, my shower taken and my bed actually made. I'm feeling very accomplished this morning, so much so, I figured I could take the time to write a nice long blog post.

Grandma Bechtle left on Saturday:( We will all miss her! It won't be long til we see you again!

Hope everyone is having a great Presidents day!

It's Friday!

Even at three weeks old, Jade understands the happiness that comes from knowing it's friday :)

Happy friday everyone!