I am still alive!

Wow! It has been a while since I have had time to post. School has been keeping me busy in addition to cleaning house and taking care of Hadley. Recently Hadley and I met Raynell and Rex at Harb's Oasis to take pictures at their cute pumpkin patch setup. It was extremely hot, but I think the kids had fun anyway.
Of course it is football season so we have been going to the LSU games. The only way we could possibly do this is if our parents watch Hadley. We are so grateful to have such amazing parents. We truly don't know what we would do without them. We are secretly hoping the Tigers learn some new offensive plays this week because they are struggling!!
We actually got some tickets to attend the Saints vs. Jets game and were able to go ! That was pretty fun too! Go Saints!
I actually left Hadley in the nursery at church last Sunday! Jared was so proud of me... I did have to confess to him that the only reason I did it was because there were only two other babies in there!! She is getting a bit too squirmy and vocal to stay with us. I am trying to let go, but it is hard.

Mommy moment

Well, I did it. I left my baby girl in the nursery at church for the first time. I cried and she didn't. Go figure. I decided to join the mom's bible study at our church. This is just one of the many perks of being a stay home mom. You actually have time for this kind of thing! The devil was doing his best to keep me from going. Here is how the morning went: I got up before Hadley and got dressed. I was opening her sweet potatoes when the top caused the sweet potatoes to fly all over my shirt! AHH! So I tried to keep my cool and press on. I changed my shirt and continued getting her food ready. Then she wakes up, so I go to pick her up to change her and .. yep.. you guessed it .. a big nasty diaper... you know the kind that leaks out the side....yuck... so I take off all my clothes so as not to get them soiled and proceed to bring my little princess to the tub where we wash her off. We get the funky clothes into the wash, and I put her in her diaper and a bib to feed her then we get her dressed and ready to go. Needless to say we were fifteen minutes late, but God gets the win!! I fed her the bottle for the first part of the study and then decided that I needed to let go and bring her to the nursery. I have been building up to this moment. It is so hard for me to leave her because I have never left her with anyone else except family. I began to tear up as I handed her over, but she was fine with it. They took good care of her and I cried for a little while in the lobby then got myself together and went back in. Win for mommy!

Yesterday's message

Being parents has affected our lives in many ways. When you are a parent, you want to do what is best for your child. You want to watch over them and protect them and do whatever you can to give them the best life possible. Jared and I have always attended church, but since Hadley was born we have really begun to evaluate our spiritual lives. We have continued to pray each night before we go to bed and pray over her before she goes to bed. But we also started reading the Word again on a regular basis. Our church gives out a monthly Bible reading schedule, so we decided to start there. For the past month, we have been reading Proverbs each night. The main theme in Proverbs is wisdom. So naturally, we have been praying for wisdom in all our decisions. Dino has been preaching in a series called "I have a friend who..." . Last week was about healing and this week was about making bad choices. I know, as parents, Jared and I, are really trying to evaluate each word we say, choice we make, or step we take because we have a strong desire to be Godly examples for our daughter. I just wanted to share yesterday's message because it really spoke to me and I hope it will be of value to others. So here goes:

He began with Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your OWN understanding , but in all your ways acknowledge Him and HE will make your paths straight." (I love this verse!) Then he had us think of what the opposite of this verse would be.... I am going to sum it up the best I can. It went something like this... "If you do things YOUR way and do not trust in Him, you will end up in one big cycle of pain, confusion, and fear."

Then he talked about the verses in Romans (7:17-20) that talk about the spirit vs. the flesh. Then he listed the top four areas that people usually make bad choices in: relational, financial, sexual, and result of a bad environment.

He then went on to talk about why we make these bad choices:
1) fear(loneliness, rejection, failure, etc.),
2) impatience(not waiting on God's best for our lives),
3) not using wisdom to make our decisions ( knowing what is right but doing the wrong thing anyway),
4) caught in a stupid moment,
5) pride ( too prideful to listen to others who are trying to speak God's truth to you)
6) lust
7) the company you keep.
Wow- when I look back at some of the bad choices I have made in my life I can see how true these really are!! Funny how easy it is to see now! But the bottom line is HOPE!! There is hope in Christ!!
Dino gave us a few reminders:
1) You will never change what you continue to tolerate! Quit making excuses for things that you know are not pleasing to the Lord! You have to be willing to make a change.
2) Right voices equal right choices. Listen to God's voice/ His Word. Compromised voices equal bad choices.
3) You can't turn back the clock. What is done is done, but you can accept what is and move forward accepting God's healing letting God use your bad choices as a lesson to help you grow. 4) The Bible is a book about people who made bad choices and allowed God to redeem them.

He provided us with tips on how to help if you know someone making bad choices:
1) Have patience.
2) Love them by speaking God's truth to them.
3) Forgiveness
4) HOPE- decisions are not final. God's mercies are new every day! Thank goodness for that!

Interesting week

Well to begin with, school has officially started for me. I am taking two graduate level classes at LSU; one on Wednedsay nights and one on Saturday mornings. I am learning lots of new things in the field of Library Science... I didn't know much to start with so I have a lot to learn. Besides the fact that I worked on one assignment for a whole week only to find out that I would have to redo the whole thing, the classes are going pretty well.
Jared has been sick with a sinus/ear infection all week. Now Hadley and I have caught the crud from him. So we are hoping that we will all recover this weekend. Despite the runny nose, Hadley is in a great mood. She has been squealing alot lately. It is pretty funny! She loves chasing Rusty around the house in her walker. We took her to a professional photographer for her 6 months pictures. She hammed it up big time. I came home and told Jared to get ready because we are going to be broke after this one!! I was really excited because last time was a struggle. Let's just say she wasn't in the mood for her picture to be taken! We are continuing to feed Hadley new foods. We can now add green beans to the list of foods she likes. We are looking forward to watching the Tigers play Saturday night even though I may be sleeping at half time because the game starts so darn late. What were they thinking! Let's hope our offense can bring something exciting!

Movin' on up

Hadley has recently moved up to eating other foods besides breast milk and rice cereal. Her first venture was to carrots. She seemed to have no problems with these. Since it was her first experience with a different flavor, she smacked her lips some trying to get used to the new taste. Next on the list was sweet peas. She immediately had a negative response to the peas. I must say that I can't really blame her- those suckers smell terrible! Jared and I got a kick out of her facial expressions. She would close her eyes and shake her head. She would thrust her tongue, or just let the peas sit in her mouth. But our absolute favorite was when she would actually drum up a gag reflex. Poor baby! We actually had to end up chasing the peas with breast milk so she would eat them! After a few times, we gave up and fed her bananas. OOhh boy did she like those. She must take after her mommy; I don't like peas either. Anyone else have a food that their child didn't like?

Houmas House

Yesterday Hadley and I met Aunt Alyssa and Mrs. Raynell and Rex at the Houmas House for lunch. The trick is : you go for lunch (which is really yummy) and then you get to walk around the beautiful grounds and take pics of your children for free! Here are a few pics of us!!

Our baby girl is 6 months old

Hadley turned 6 months old yesterday. She is such a good baby. We are so blessed. She has remained healthy and she is growing each day! She loves her baths and swimming. She has two teeth. She is eating rice cereal twice a day. She is sitting up on her own. She has been sleeping through the night pretty consistently lately. Yippee! She loves running around the house in her walker. She likes grabbing her feet and putting things in her mouth. She loves to babble like her mama. No real words yet, but she is working on "dada". Her eyes are still a hazel color; they have not turned brown yet. She still has lots of hair and she still lets me put bows in her hair! One of my favorite things as a mommy is to get her out of her crib once she has awakened from her nap; the smile on her face melts my heart. I love it. She is such a happy baby; she smiles all the time! We love her so much! We can't wait to experience the next 6 months with her!