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Saturday, November 15, 2014

this & that

We had this cute little guest room. I loved it. I loved the room and I loved when friends would come and stay in it. I had all the things from trips all over the world and well, everything just so. After many thoughts bouncing all around in my head and talking it out with Mama and Cale, we decided to take this guest room...




and turn it into...




...a play room! 

I'm so excited! The stage of life we're in, there's always littles running around and in our home there just isn't anywhere for them to go. Now we have a room where toys and games can be played! we recently had a prayer night here for a friend and it was a night I was so wishing we had the room ready. Lots of kiddos! haha.


 One of my favorite parts is in the corner, do you see that yellow mirror? Well, in the little chest next to it is the start to a collection of dress up clothes. The mirror is there for the kiddos to see themselves after dressing up! Nora crawls over to the mirror now and has a blast just looking at the baby she sees :) 

It's still a place for guest to come so don't worry if you were planning to come for a visit! We purposefully picked out a sofa bed for when we have company! 

This room warms my heart. One day when Nora is older, I'll be able to have a guest room with everything just so if that's what the need is, but for now, for this season, it just doesn't fit-and I'm totally ok with that! I'm also fully aware that it won't always look so pretty! 20 minutes ago that room was destroyed with toys all over! 



We enjoyed lunch out for Veterans Day. We always go to Applebees and Cale gets his free lunch. It's such a small thing but I think makes such a huge impact on him. The picture with Nora was a surprise to Cale. It took Mama's help and between the two of us we managed to get one! Nora was wanting to move and play-not sit and smile for mommy to take a picture! 


So...you know my friend Rachel...the friend that I've grown up with, my maid of honor, the friend who visited every hospital we had to go to and the friend that watched as my daughter made her way into the world...

well...

that friend has a baby in her belly. 

I'm bursting with joy. 

I was telling her one night as we walked together how I'm of course excited she's going to have a baby-thats obvious, but more than that, I'm so excited because I know what she's about to experience. I now know the unspeakable emotion of everything having a baby does within a person and now it's her turn. I just...whoa. I can't hardly type this without tearing up!

Rachel,
You're beautiful pregnant and I know you'll be a beautiful mommy. I can't wait to meet Baby E and watch as Nora and Baby E become the best of friends! 
My heart overflows with joy for you and Mike!!!




I have a few other pictures to share with you that we had done, but heres a few you can see now :) Nora was so serious the entire shoot! 




We took a trip to visit my brother. I have some great pictures to share but they're on the big camera so I'll have to load those ones later. Here's a couple quick ones!

Last little note- for those of you that continue to send us cards, we've gotten rid of our PO Box...just so you know...! ;)

That's all for now. At least for today!







Sunday, November 2, 2014

A whole lotta darlingness.

It's November. 

I remember on New Years thinking about how this was the year I was going to have a baby. It all seemed unreal and unsure. 

And now...it's November. Already.

Here's a huge long load of us over the last few months...




{the many faces of Nora.}




Nora's first time to Heppner! It included Uncle Mike & Aunt Rae, football, crazy hair and a walk. :)

We painted our cabinets in the kitchen. I've wanted to do it since we built the house and finally decided I just needed to get it done! It was waaaaaaay more work than I had expected but I'm so glad we did it! I love it!! Thankfully we have some pretty awesome friends who came to help out...


 {The before}


 {This stuff did not work in the slightest with the varnish. Let down.}


{this stuff saved us! We still had a lot of sanding to do but this still helped cut the mess big time!}



{the after! it's so much lighter and not so heavy and dark looking in our little home}


There was a special wedding that took place. Mama's best friend found another man to walk the rest of her life with her after she lost the first one.


Mike made Cale the game Cornhole. It's awesome. Cale loves it so much!


A sweet friend sent Nora some goodies all the way from Uganda!








 {friends}


 {another beautiful wedding!}













{oh yeah. at 5 months she started Army crawling. everywhere.}


{FaceTime with daddy!}

Nora & mommy went on a little trip. It was needed. Needed in so many ways and so so so good. Wounded Warrior Project made it possible. Rachel had a conference to go to for work in Texas and we tagged along. :) We had the weekend to all play and then she had a few days of being at the conference so little miss and myself had our own little mommy and baby adventures. I loved it! Before leaving I thought I would be bored with Rachel gone all day but with a baby...there wasn't much time to be bored! 


When we arrived back home, mommy was refreshed and ready to get back to real life and baby was happy to see daddy :)





{how in the world did 6 months happen?!?!?!}







{her FIRST dentist appointment!}


{her FIRST time eating!!}



 {look closely...you can see her little teeth!}






 {watching in amazement!}

 We spent a day with friends at Bill Berry Farm. It was fun and just so nice to be with friends. Cale used a sling shot to hit targets with apples in the hopes to win free donuts. He didn't end up hitting a target, but the sheer enjoyment of slingshotting  apples was enough! We did eat fresh yummy donuts, took pictures and made cider. Cale had fun for the most part but towards the end he was done. I was so thankful for how he was able to handle his anger. Normally he would have taken off and probably yelled a little but this time he just left the area. He found a spot away from everyone and chilled. When I went over to him, thinking he was going to try to walk home, he said he was done and needed to take a break. Guys, this is huge. We would have a whole lot less of tears and frustration in this family if he could more consistently find his limit and take the break before it becomes too much. Often I'm able to be the one to help him figure out when that point is, but I'm not always there or involved in the moment. This was cool. This was huge!


No candy for the little one this Halloween but daddy and mommy sure had some! Mama made Nora's little costume!


No shave November has begun! I'll make sure to post his picture after a month of no shaving! 


We were visiting with friends last night and at one point I grabbed one of their daughters baby dolls and showed Nora. She made some noises at it and then started growling and then...started chewing on it. That's what friends do, right?


If you are in need of a smile...watch this!


"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." -Helen Keller

We've had a few interesting conversations lately. If you think about it, be praying for wisdom in how to respond to some of them. Here's a few of them...

Cale is missing the Army terribly. He talks about it often and although he may not remember everything quite as it happened or in the order it happened or even the majority of what did happen, he does remember he was a soldier. He does remember he worked and deployed and loved it. He came to me a couple weeks ago with an entire plan of rejoining. He had thought about us moving and about being away from Nora. We talked for awhile about it. Honestly, I had no idea how to respond. I did ask him if he honestly thought he could rejoin and he said yes. My heart broke. He wanted it so badly. 

We've talked lately about Nora growing up and dreaming about what she's going to be like. Cale asked how he was going to teach her soccer if he can't run and play anymore. He also talked about if we have a boy, how is he going to teach him how to ice skate and play hockey. Do you notice anything about this conversation and the last? He sometimes knows his disability and sometimes doesn't get it at all. 

There was another I was going to share but can't think of it at the moment. Point is, sometimes these conversations we have can be difficult! 

A few other randoms...

This last Thursday Nora pulled herself up to standing. This has come way too soon!



Cale has started learning photography. One of our friends at church does it as a hobby and has started helping Cale to learn how to take better pictures. So far he's really enjoying it! I'll have to post some of his pictures this week!


This last week, Cale was being sneaky and took some cash I had sitting out. When I asked him about it later after I knew he had hidden it somewhere, he said, "It's in my Bible. God is watching over it." Haha. Awesome. It's totally a cool truth as well as him being hilarious. Which was exactly what he was going for ;)

Cale is always telling Nora she needs to learn English. He'll tell her words to say and they're always words like, "the" or "it" which seem really funny to be her first words. ;)

We are having so much fun with Nora now that she plays with us. She has quite the little personality coming out!

Just to perk up your ears and raise your eyebrows, we'll be posting about a new Darling Project soon! Well, as soon as I figure out the next one! It'll be soon though so start watching for it! :)

Hmm... I think that's about it! I'm sure there's a lot more stories and things to share but my brain is ready to turn off. 





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