one.

One year ago today at 1:39pm little miss Julia Jane graced us with her presence.

Her birthday was celebrated last Saturday with family. Thank you everyone that could make it!

We're blessed by such a sweet family.

She looks so grown up compared to the above pictures.

wow.

What a week! God has definitely been teaching me to be patient, place all my cares in His hands and not get so uptight about things.

~Our week started off with Julia getting better from her ear infections (YAY!!!) but then I missed three days of work due to an awful sinus infection and an infection in both ears.

~Jeremy is coming up on a deadline at work and he's been going pretty hard. Well to enhance the mood of the stressful situation, Tuesday, he came home with his back window of the company van knocked out and the center all vertically dented inward...he backed into a dumpster that was in his blind spot when he was leaving work for the day. He feels awful about it and thankfully his boss knows that.

~Here's the part that has been the biggest struggle. The first day back to work from being sick I went to see a pt and that pt passed away while I was there. What has been so disturbing was how that pt passed. I can't give details but matters were out of my hands and dignity and respect were not upheld. That is the goal of my profession, to provide utmost dignity, respect and care to anybody I take care of, young or old. What happened in this situation I was not able to control and I feel like I took on the guilt of this playing over and over in my head what I should have done better although on the part of other people being there, it wouldn't have changed the situation. This is where God is teaching me to totally release the situation in to His hands. I know now that God will deal with those that were involved in the situation and caused it to go badly...not to make it sound negative like He will deal with them harshly but these other people are in God's hands and it is not my place to worry about it anymore. God is so good and I've been able to let go of the situation slowly and not think about it so much. Out of this situation it has made me be more aware to prevent this from ever happening to another pt.

For some happy thoughts:
State surveyed our company this week and we have ZERO deficiencies company wide! Praise God!!!

Today we're having Julia's first birthday party. Lots of family coming and we're really looking forward just to be able to be with everyone!

mmmmm chocolate!

I left the kitchen with the child proof lock off for one minute and Julia discovered the joy of chocolate...we heard screeching and giggling.

Attempting to put the lid back on before mom and dad come after me!

bath time came early tonight! :-)

one year pictures

Pictures by Meg. These were taken back in June when it was 100 degrees out. The pictures turned out great! This is one of our favorites :-)

Love love LOVE her little hands.

And as the evening went on and it kept getting more humid this is what Julia started to think of the whole situation. It's her classic Julia look when she's upset or frustrated.
And she's officially had it! I love these pics. They capture her personality!


We had fun Megan! Thank you so much for taking our pictures, we love how they turned out!

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust"

Psalm 91:1-2

I have to admit that I have been trying to calculate without God....on a daily basis. I spend hours up on hours a week worrying about life, family, work, friends, laundry, even cleaning! I know that God is fully in control, but allowing myself to control my "need to be incontrol" is what is so difficult. The above verse is so comforting to know that when I put my faith and trust in Him, He gives me shelter and protection. He loves me for who I am no matter what mistakes I've made. He holds me tightly in the palm of His hand even when I feel like I'm barely hanging on for dear life! As long as I constantly remind myself to place my life and my family in Him, I can assure myself that I am safe.

My brother and sister in-law gave me a woman's devotional for my birthday and I highly recommend it. It is "Joy for the Woman's Soul-Promises to Refresh the Spirit by Zondervan". It gives little devotionals about integrating JOY in the midst of fear, crisis and pain, persevering, having a Godly perspective, having JOY in faithfulness (even when you don't have it in your heart to be fully and completely faithful in trusting God's will for your life) just to name a few of the topics.

little ears

Julia has an infection in both ears. Poor little thing. She hasn't been feeling well the past couple of days and we were chalking it up to her teeth. SO SO SO glad that I called her pediatrician this afternoon and that they wanted to see her before the weekend. Hopefully only one round of antibiotics will be needed and her ears will heal up!

peek!

our fourth-part two.

More fourth. This is Kinsey Kay, So happy!

A very tired little girl that was not liking the fireworks or their loudness :-(

Almost all the little ones and kids

By the next evening Jewels had gotten her second wind and was having a great time at Uncle Kevin and Aunt Carla's

our fourth-part one.

here are some pics from our 4th of July weekend.

Ethan covering his ears from all the loud fireworks, and after eating some yummy dessert!

Garrett with the parachute that he caught

Carter poseing. What a ham!

Clara getting ready for loud noises!

Gavin showing me his sparkler. This is a pyro child forsure!

miniture four wheeler

Jeremy, Ethan and Clara on a ride over the weekend of the fourth.

It was sooo cute!

"it's tomorrow"

As Jeremy rolled over and gave me a hug this morning before getting out of bed to go to work he whispers in my ear...

jeremy: have a happy birthday

me: ok, but it's tomorrow.

silence

jeremy: i knew that.

hahaha! that makes me laugh.

help around the house

We have a big "helper" at our house now! Last Saturday by 9:30 in the morning Julia accomplished this...

A beautiful floor lamp broken in half and not fixable. No returns on the lamp or the baby. hehe. We love her to pieces and wouldn't trade her for anything in the world!

Pretty sure this won't be the last lamp or item broken in our home by a little girl named Julia Jane! :-)