Thank You for Diapers

Everynight when I put Ava to bed I say a prayer with her. Recently I decided to begin asking her who she wants to pray for at bedtime. So far we have prayed for Papa, Olivia (as in Olivia the Pig on Nick Jr), the chair in her room, Nana, Pop, Grandma, Grandpa, the stars from her nightlight, Oswald (another Nick Jr animated character), the door to her closet and tonight we prayed for her diapers. Yes thank you Lord for the convenience of disposable diapers, I'm so grateful I don't have to change poopy cloth diapers!

Joy of Love Day 28- The Future

While three is a magic number we both hope and pray that our families future includes becoming a party of five one day! We both still have a very strong desire to adopt internationally one day and we of course would be thrilled beyond belief if God blessed us with another miracle baby. In fact we both believe God will fulfill those desires one day. All that being said though if Ava Kate is God's final addition to our family we will always feel complete with the love and joy she has brought into our lives!

"We prayed for this child and the Lord has granted us what we asked of Him."- 1 Sam 1:27

"Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him."- Psalm 127:3

Joy of Love Day 27- What They Say

In her first week of life as she sucked on her pacifier and looked like a little bunny rabbit her daddy started calling her his bunny and the name has stuck. I often wonder when we're out in public if people think her real name is Bunny!

Joy of Love Day 26- The Bromance

What is Justin's favorite activity of the week that doesn't involve Ava and me? Sunday night Life Group basketball. And these guys take it very serious! I'm glad Justin has these guys in his life not just to play a little hoops together every week but to encourage each other and spur each other on in their spiritual walk and in their daily relationships.

Joy of Love Day 25- When You Love Them Most

There are many things I could have taken a photo of for this day unloading the dishwasher, doing laundry, working out with me, working on his honey do list, rubbing my feet but none makes my heart tick as fast as watching my love be a daddy! And I love that he is sharing with Ava his love for the arts!

Joy of Love Day 24- Where

Chapel On the Hill, where my love and I began our forever!

What's Playing Wednesday

I have my other talented and musical uncle to thank for my latest music discovery, The Civil Wars. Wow, they are incredible! He was here recently and found out they were going to be playing at Monks Coffee Shop in March and told us we really should go because they were really good and on the verge of getting really big. Not long after they were on Jay Leno. I bought our tickets to the concert this week and I'm just counting down the days! March is a fun month for our family with all the birthdays and now I not only have the William Fitzsimmons concert to look forward to next weekend but also The Civil Wars. Anyone want to join us for a night out?

Joy of Love Day 23- Facebook

Today's Joy of Love assignment was choosing your favorite photo of your love from Facebook, either that they posted of them self, that you posted or someone else tagged them in. I had a really hard time choosing one so I picked three instead. And I didn't do this intentionally but I ended up choosing one of us while it was just the two of us, one of us while we were anticipating the arrival of our party of three and one of my love and our little love!


I have always loved this photo of us because it is so handsome of Justin!



I love the genuine look of joy on our faces here and how it so perfectly portrays the fact that though we endured several years, tears, procedures and disappointments it was all worth it for this joy!



And this one just melts me!

Joy of Love Day 22- Portrait

My handsome love, his beautiful curls and gorgeous blue eyes!

Crazy Love

These three have crazy love for each other! Ava Kate is richly blessed with a loving Grandma and Grandpa that adore her! And one of Grandma's favorite things to do is spoil us, she took Ava on a spring shopping spree before she went home Sunday! Little miss even got to pick out her own flip flops and sunglasses but I think this Texas weather is confusing her because before we left the house she had to have on her winter hat and mommy's scarf with her silver sandals and sunglasses but maybe she had it all figured out because the wind was blowing like crazy on that otherwise gorgeous sunny day!

Joy of Love Day 21- Hands

One of my favorite things my love's hands do... give my tired, achy feet a massage... almost every night!

Joy of Love Day 20- When They're Home

I thought it only fitting to have a photo of Justin laying on the pillow next to me for my When They're Home assignment. After all this is one of the places where I feel most at home, snuggled up in bed next to my love!

Joy of Love Day 19- When They're Gone

This was an easy assignment for me, take a photo of the way your home looks when your love is gone. I immediately thought of an empty pillow next to me in the bed. I HATE when Justin is gone and I have to sleep alone in our bed. I can probably count on my fingers the number of times we have slept apart since we've been married. Feeling him next to me in bed is probably one of the most comforting, safe and warm feelings I've ever known.

Joy of Love Day 18- Going Out

Today's assignment was to go out on the town. Although we didn't exactly have a hot date, we did get to go out to a nice dinner with Justin's parents and Ava. We were supposed to ask someone to take some fun photos of us while we were enjoying our night out on the town. We lucked out on that since we had Justin's mom with us. Some of the photos turned out a bit blurry but that's okay it is just nice to have some photos of just the two of us again! As you can probably tell we had some fun with this assignment!

Thursday's Talent

This week's Thursday's Talent amazes me. A mother to 5 daughters, an extremely talented seamstress and photographer. Her blog is so inspiring. She is Katy of No Big Dill at http://thedillspiel.blogspot.com/. Check out some of her sewing projects below and look at all of her projects for the Project Run & Play contest on her blog, aaaamazing!!!

Joy of Love Day 17- Staying In

A typical night with my two loves is filled with tea parties, playing baby, hide and seek, reading books, a little TV and lots of snuggling! Staying nights are my favorites!

Joy of Love Day 16- Together

This turned out to be the hardest Joy of Love assignment so far. I wanted it to reflect what we do when we are together. We tried taking a several sitting in the bed watching TV together and reading but they were just cheesy! When I thought about what we enjoy doing together I thought of working out. A couple of months ago I got Justin to join the health club again and we've been getting to workout together for the first time since before Ava was born. We are doing a program called Art of Strength together and it has not only been great for us individually but has given us a shared adventure again. So this photo was taken after we got home from the gym in our sweaty gym clothes. I love getting to share something I love with my love again!

What's Playing Wednesday

The Swell Season are Glen Hansard of the Irish band, The Frames and Marketa Irglova a classically trained Czech pianist and vocalist. You might better know them as the pair that wrote "Falling Slowly" a song from the movie Once which won an Oscar in 2008. I loved that movie, loved that song and all the songs on the soundtrack from Once. Now they have a new album Strict Joy and this song, "In These Arms" is amazing, I swear I get goosebumps all over when I hear the two of them sing together. This song has been playing on repeat over and over today on my Ipod at work.

Joy of Love Day 15- The Kiss

Holding a camera with one hand and kissing at the same time takes some practice, I don't think Justin minded the practice, in fact I'm quite certain he would say this was his favorite of my Joy of Love assignments thus far!

Love Sweet Love

No fighting the crowds at the restaurants for us, a quiet candlelight dinner for three at home was how we chose to spend our Valentines and I can't think of a better way we could have spent it. Justin grilled steaks and asparagus, I made rosemary parmesan potatoes. After dinner, Ava got a bath, we painted our toes and read her new Fancy Nancy book.

Best surprise of the evening- Justin surprised me with tickets to see William Fitzsimmons in concert at the Paramount next month!