+ Choose Joy +

I've really dropped the ball on the whole monthly updates for Brielle... Since our move I havn't been the most motivated person in the world to blog since so much else has been going on but here I am with an almost 10 month old! I'm going to try to remember some of when she did some of her milestones since some of them happened so close together! Brielle is now 30 inches long and 18lbs. She is one tall skinny girl! I feed her so much and she still hardly has any rolls. I guess it does make sense since me and Luke have very high metabolisms so will she. Brielle had her first Christmas and loved it. She actually enjoyed opening gifts and was so interested in the wrapping paper. She almost loved it more then the gifts. :) While on Christmas break we went snowboarding and I was away from Brielle for 6 hours straight and survived okay! It was the longest I had been away from her but she was well taken care of by my mom while we enjoyed the outdoors. It was Brielle's

I seriously cannot believe that I missed a month of updating you all on Brielle! Well if you are a Momma you know how life with a little one can be just a little hint of crazy. Time never seems to stand still for us! I cannot handle that my baby is half a year old already. I'm trying to cherish every second I have with her as I know I'll blink and she'll be grown up. Yikes, lets not go there or I might just start to tear up! Since Brielle's last update at four months she has learned and experienced so much!  She is now 27 inches long, 14.14 lbs and her head is 16.5 inches. She is one long little girl! Brielle is still wearing some 3-6 month old clothes but is transitioning to 6-12 month clothes. She has learned to roll over from back to tummy and tummy to back. I cannot leave her alone anymore because she is on the move. She even lifts up her butt to crawl but hasn't figured out that she needs to use her arms for that yet.  We started solid food

It's that time again to update you all on how Brielle is doing! She is now 4 months old as of October 1st and is growing like a weed! I wanted to wait to do this update until I could find out her height and weight which were measured at her vaccine appointment today which she totally rocked! She only cried on the last shot and I think it was harder for me then for her. She is now just soundly sleeping in her crib like usual. :) So Brielle as of today is 26 inches (head to heal) and weighs 13lbs 2oz! She is currently in the 85% for height! She eats like crazy and likes to feed around every 2 hours still. It makes sense since she has grown so much in length the rest of her body has had a hard time catching up. haha Over all the nurse wasn't concerned about her weight gain because of how long she was which put me at ease for sure. She is a very normal healthy baby! She has now made the transition to her own room and crib at night which was a bitter sweet thing for me. It almos

As I look down and study my daughter I wish I could just bottle up everything about her. Her little eyelashes, fingers and toes are just so precious. I wish I could save the way she smells and her little sounds. As I stroke her soft little cheek I now understand why my mom would say that "You will always be my baby"; that's what Brielle will be for me too. I know that she will continue to grow, mature, and one day move out and build her own life. This precious bundle will start to talk back, push the limits, and make me want to pull my hair out. I know that I will have to ask her for forgiveness as I make mistakes as a mother and I hope she does forgive me. I hope and pray that we will be close, that she will grow into a confidant, beautiful woman who loves others; a person who has the biggest heart and ultimately loves and knows Jesus personally. I know that Brielle has her own personality and that will show more and more as she grows. She is already showing this and h

I love how this blog has been a place where for the past eight years I have poured my heart out as a teenager struggling in a new place, a young adult finding herself again, a wife new to marriage and now to a mother caring for her first child. I am so grateful to be able to look back on how I have grown as a person and grown in my relationship with Christ through all that life has thrown at me. I know I will be able to do the same with this season. Life has been so precious, hard, wonderful and discouraging recently and at times I have felt so out of control. Ultimately I know I'm not in control, God has a plan for this season of life and I'm so excited to see the fruit that will come from it. With Luke loosing his job and not having work for two months, to becoming a new mom, and loosing all our savings in car repairs I can confidently say that God is STILL GOOD. I have had moments of discouragement and feeling trapped in our own home. Feeling like the place where we feel

I seriously cannot believe that Brielle is now three months old! She has grown so much since she was born and I just love the way that she is becoming her own little person! Brielle is such a happy baby and doesn't seem to fuss a lot, only when she is uncomfortable of course. When all of her needs are met she is a happy camper and doesn't cry for no reason. I am so thankful that she is so happy especially after she is fed. She loves to tell me stories and explore her own voice. Her little sounds make me melt especially when I say "i love you" and she tries to say it back it seems. Her face just lights up and it's just adorable! Brielle has always been a mover even in the womb. Her legs are always kicking and her arms never seem to sit still. I'm pretty positive she's going to be a busy girl, independant like her momma was. ;) One day at grandma Gigi's we measured her length and she has grown another 2 inches in length! She has grown a total of 6