Thankful to the Lord

For those of you who don't know, I have been pretty much couch-bound for the past week or so. About two weeks ago I started having some pains and found out last week that I had a pilonidal cyst w/abcess. Because those are on your tailbone, it hurt to move in anyway and to sit down. This past Monday, I had to got to the doctor and have it taken care of, and am now healing from that procedure and the healing process that comes along with it, called "open healing." I won't describe it on here. Nonetheless, it is a healing process that requires not much movement on my part, and a daily visit by a nurse.

I write all this to give praise to the Lord. Throughout this process, which has not always been easy, He has shown His mercy to our family. He has reminded us how much people at our church care for us as they have provided a few meals this week, watched Caroline each day since I cannot, and provided our pastor's wife to be my nurse each day. People have cared for each of us and we are especially grateful to those who have kept Caroline. I am grateful to Ryan for all he has done, from working from home, taking care of Caroline, keeping the house in order, to taking care of me

We are not sure how long the healing process will take, but continue to pray for God to provide people to help watch Caroline this coming week if need be. We are hoping that I will be able to keep her, but we will have to see how things go tomorrow. We also are praying for little to no pain as I have my time with the nurse each day. We are praying for complete healing of this cyst, as it has a chance of returning. I don't want to go through this again. We are also praying that Caroline will continue to go with the flow as she has been in new situations all week. Pray with us, if you would, for these requests.

Pictures of the Day

Caroline looked so cute in her capris. This is what Ryan dressed her in this morning.

Caroline's new entertainment is standing up to play with the straps in her highchair.

Caroline's dinner turned out pretty messy tonight!

Recent Videos
(for those who aren't grandparents, sorry there are so many. but we knew they'd want to see them)

Caroline sat in her highchair on the floor during her dinner so that I could feed her from the couch. Sitting in this new place must have made her really talkative.

A family from church gave Caroline this Winnie the Pooh rocking thingie. Something doesn't sound right when Ryan asks Caroline, "Do you want to sit on Pooh?"

Caroline loves standing in her crib. Every time we go in to get her up, she doesn't come out without a struggle. Isn't she supposed to practically jump out when she has the chance?

Caroline's always loved dancing, and just because she is pulling up to her feet now doesn't mean that has changed one bit!

Garden and Rose Bush

Look how it's grown in a week...you can check out last Saturday's post to see the difference. We love it! I love seeing the rose bush out our living room window. Since I have spent most of my time on the couch each day, it is nice to have something beautiful to look at. If you look closely, you will see too different color roses. There are a lot more blooms on their way too.

We have the MOST amazing baby! She can do pull-ups! However, she gets mighty hungry when she works out. Watch the video below...

Yesterday Ryan took a two hour nap on the living room floor. When Caroline got up from her nap she played all over him, but she didn't get him to get up! When he did get up, Caroline loved laying on his pillow.

Caroline wore this pretty red dress to church today. She was sitting with me when she got home from church and Ryan got her picture. We both looked at the pictures and couldn't believe how big she is getting. Her face looks older to us. Enjoy the pics of our growing girl.

Our rose bush, garden, and strawberry plant!

Look how different they look from last Saturday!

The roses even smell pretty!




Our garden is doing well, except for the cucumbers. I think we are going to have to replant those.

Our strawberry plants are doing well. You can see there is one ready to be picked in the picture. I even ate one yesterday!

Caroline's exercauser turns into this fun s-shaped table. Now that Caroline is pulling up she is enjoying it!

She is pulling up and getting into everything.

I love the face she is making here!

Caroline is pulling up and playing ball!

Caroline started pulling up at random times a month or so ago. However it wasn't until today that she did it over and over again. Ryan would sit her down and she would do it again. She loves it and is obviously proud of herself at being able to do it. We are proud of her too! Here is a video of it, and a few pictures to follow. They are both of her so happy after standing up!




We also took a video of her playing with the mini soccer ball that Ryan got her a few weeks ago. She loves to sit in front of you and roll/throw it back and forth! It is fun to her, and to us.

As I write this, she is trying to stand up all over the room!

Our Rose Bush, Our Garden, and Our Yard

We have a pretty big (at least to us) rose bush in our front yard. This is our first spring here so we had no idea if it would actually bloom or not. For the first time yesterday we saw that it had blooms!

See the blooms on their way!

Our first rose!

The rose bush is just outside our front window. I looked out today and saw that we had more roses opening. It was kind of exciting! These are some pictures I took today. It is amazing to see God's creation and how it changes so much, even overnight.

I really wanted to experiment with a garden this year. Since we are renting, we decided to do a raised garden. Ryan got it all set up and ready last weekend, and this past Friday we got everything planted. We had started with seeds in some peat pellets, and planted what had grown these past weeks. This will be a trial and error year with our garden, but hopefully we will have some success!

Here is a picture of the garden, a neat stake that I got a pack of at the dollar spot in Target, and a strawberry plant that I transplanted from someone else's yard.

I also wanted to share a picture of the tree behind Caroline's swing. About three weeks ago the tree was completely bare. Then, when my mom and I were out about two weeks ago with Caroline we saw the beginning of leaves on the branches. Now look at it! I wanted to post a picture so my mom could see how quickly it changed! Once again, I have been so amazed by all God has created.

Thanks, Uncle Tim!

Caroline looked so cute dressed in this fun outfit that Uncle Tim bought her when we were in Orlando in March. We had to get a picture to share.

Being Silly!

Here are a few shots of Caroline this week when I was trying to take her picture.

11 Months Old!
Caroline turned 11 months old on Monday. I can't believe she is almost one!

My good friend Rosemary visited this week and we had a great time! She flew in Sunday night into the craziest airport we had ever seen. It was so busy with it being the end of spring break here in the Atlanta area. We had a fun, lazy day on Monday, went to the library and Target on Tuesday, and went and acted like tourists on Wednesday! We went to the World of Coca-Cola and the Varsity before heading back to the airport. Thanks for coming to visit, Rosemary! Ryan and I, and especially Caroline, enjoyed your time here!

Rosemary and Caroline smiling in front of a foreign Coke machine.

We got to get our picture with the Coca-Cola polar bear. There was a real person under that costume, and Caroline didn't know what to think when it was moving and waving to her.

Reality Check

Ok, so I've been thinking that there were certain things that Kim does with Caroline while I'm at work. Things like: building with blocks, reading books, and crawling. However, I came home early one day last week and was in for a real shock! I taped the scene as I went inside:



At least their snack was nutritious and whole-grain!