18 Months

Kiera turned 18 months yesterday, but as it was a crazy busy day, I had no time to blog until today. I wrote down in her journal a list of all the words she's saying and she has almost 70 words in her vocabulary! So now, I can't keep track anymore. She basically has almost totally quit scooting now and has switched to crawling. I haven't posted a lot of pictures of her lately, so here are some from the past couple of months.

February

March

April

She's not quite walking on her own yet, but I think she's VERY close, which gives me hope! This was 2 days ago:

Since then, she has walked across the whole kitchen without us touching her. Go Kiera!!

Food For Thought

I've been given a lot to think about lately. Yesterday, we had a preacher from Africa in our church and we had more of an "African style" service. It was powerful! He is very passionate about Jesus and about stirring people up. He talked about how Canadian missionaries came to Africa to tell people about Jesus, and now it's the Africans' turn to come to Canada. It made me really think about how our culture has changed and it's not hard to see how it's declining all around us with the increase of addictions to all sorts of things, gay marriages, divorce, etc. I was very much reminded how the church in general nationwide (but not everybody) has become somewhat complacent in that we think we can't do anything to change things. I know I often feel that way when I look around me. I was totally reminded that God is bigger and that we have authority in Christ and we need to take authority over these things and be more aggressive in prayer. Very challenging + yet encouraging at the same time! I also know many people (friends) who are reaching out to others + helping them which is so awesome to see!

Our women's Bible Study is going through the book "The Bait of Satan" by John Bevere right now. Wow, it is challenging and good! It's all about taking offense and how it's a sin to take offense, even when we're mistreated whether someone does something deliberately or accidentally. Quote: "We walk in a selfish love that is easily disappointed when our expectations are not met. Unconditional love gives others the right to hurt us." Yikes, that doesn't sit comfortably with me! Today, he talked about Joseph + how his brothers sold him as a slave and then he got thrown into prison when he didn't do anything wrong. Before all that, he was given a dream that he would be a ruler and he obeyed God for over 10 years after that without seeing any evidence that the promise would come true. He had MANY opportunities to take offense, but when he finally saw his brothers again after becoming 2nd in command over all of Egypt, he forgave them + blessed them when he could have easily taken revenge. I would not have reacted the same way! Another thing he said was that no other person can defeat the will of God for your life except for you. He also said that when it doesn't seem like God's promise is being fulfilled, feed on His faithfulness. So, that's what I've been thinking about + learning so far this week!

What's In a Name?

The "Name Book" that I ordered as an early Mother's Day present arrived on Monday, so I immediately started searching for names for our baby. There are LOTS of girl names that Jared + I both like and agreed on and at first, there were NO boy names that we both liked. For me, there aren't a lot of boy names that I really like and then the ones I do like either don't go well with our last name or Jared really doesn't like them. I went through the whole book 2 times and the 2nd time I wrote down all the names that I thought could be possibilities (including some of Jared's favorites). I asked Jared to stroke off the ones he didn't like and then with the rest of them, I made a new list that included all the meanings of the names. I think the meaning of the name is important...it's part of the child's identity. We went through the list again and I would ask, "Do you like this name or that name better?" and we slowly narrowed it down. I realize that our baby isn't due for months yet, but I like getting an early start on these things. I'm amazed at how much my taste in names has changed from when Kiera was born until now. I think we have settled on both a boy's name and a girl's name, including middle names for both! It's not carved in stone, but we're going to leave it for now. The boy's name isn't my favorite, but I think I can grow to really like it. Jared loves it, so I'll continue to pray about it and if it's the right one, it will be clear to both of us.

Kiera update: She has learned some more new words recently (of course). They are: honey, Poppy (that's Jared's dad), nose, Josh (her friend), and boob or boobie. She points at them, too, so she knows exactly what she's talking about. I'm sure one day she'll TOTALLY embarrass me in public with that one, but I'm not the kind of person to make up nicknames for the private body parts.

I'm going to take a poll: do you think we're having a boy or a girl? We're probably not going to find out the gender beforehand, but I think it's fun to hear what people think. Happy guessing!

I've Got Food On the Brain

These days, I have to eat at least every 2 hours in order to not feel gross (due to being pregnant) and also to keep my energy levels up, so I spend quite a bit of time thinking about food. Last night, we tried a new recipe (I say we because Jared helped me make it) and it turned out great. It's Tater Tot Casserole. You brown beef, add in some taco seasoning, and add in cream of mushroom soup (you could also do cream of chicken soup instead). You mix it altogether and put in on the bottom of a casserole dish. You put the tater tots on top and bake it for 20-25 min. Then, you add shredded cheese and bake it for another 5 min. until the cheese is melted. Ta da! It may not be the healthiest meal ever, but it tasted great and it was super easy to make! I'm a huge fan of simple recipes. To top it off, for dessert, I made myself a smoothie/milkshake. I put vanilla ice cream, a tsp. of vanilla, and strawberry passion fruit juice in the blender and out comes a drink that makes my day!! It's my most recent new favorite thing! I do eat fruit, yogurt, some veggies, and such almost every day, in case you're getting concerned about my diet. I know good nutrition is important for both me and the baby! Now that my mouth is watering, I gotta go get a snack. :)

Progress

We've gone from this exactly 3 weeks ago (Jared snowblowing our driveway after a snowstorm)


















To this exactly 2 weeks ago (no, we weren't offroading, this was our windshield while driving down a gravel road which was almost pure mud with big potholes)


















To no snow and +15 today (sorry, I didn't take a picture)! Yay, spring is here!!

A Busy + Happy Easter

Thank you all for your comments! It was fun to finally make the big announcement! When I was pregnant with Kiera, my in-laws accidentally found out when I was 7 weeks along (they were looking through my pictures and saw the one of the positive pregnancy test), so this time, I wanted to keep it a secret longer. Mission accomplished! It was hard to hide it as I was sick on + off all day every day for the whole month of March and into April, but it's slowly getting better now. I wasn't very nauseous (I haven't thrown up with either pregnancy), but I just felt gross + exhausted. I've been waking up every night to go pee and then sometimes I lie awake afterward for up to 2 hours. This last week has been much better, so I pray that continues.

Life has been crazy! My sister + brother-in-law flew out from Washington for Easter and we saw them 7 days in a row! It was also a surprise for the extended family, so that was another secret I had to keep! It was perfect timing as we were able to tell them (along with my parents) about the pregnancy in person! I completely threw them off because I said, "I'm getting a new job!" They were totally confused and then I said, "I'll still be taking care of Kiera, but I'll also be looking after he little brother or sister!" It took a second for it to click and then there was joyful pandemonium! This was our schedule this past week:

Tuesday - went to my parents' house

Wednesday - went to my parents' house again

Thursday - Art + Jenene came over

Friday - family gathering on my dad's side

Saturday - family gathering on my mom's side

Sunday - saw my family at my parents' church and then we went to a family gathering for lunch on Jared's side and then had supper at his dad + stepmom's house with the rest of his family

Monday - went for supper with my family

They leave today and that is sad for me. Kiera started saying "NeeNee" which is Jenene's nickname and she doesn't say "Art," but she knows who he is. I wonder how long she will remember them before she forgets and has to get to know them all over again the next time she sees them. I even shed a few tears after we got home last night. I figured out that I have a harder time with them leaving us than I did when I left them in Washington. I'm not sure why that is. Nevertheless, I'm still very thankful for the time we get to spend with them, even if it is only twice a year. It was a very blessed Easter!

Fun Fun Fun!

Life has been extremely busy but fun! After being cooped up all winter, I'm definitely enjoying the change. My parents took Kiera for the night the other night and we went to cell group. After cell group (which ended around 10 p.m.), we went to our friends' house to play Bohnanza. We were out 'til after 1 a.m. (I usually go to bed between 11-11:30) and only got to bed at 2:00! I was SO zonked! It was fun to do something out of the ordinary, but I'm such a mom! I can't stay up late like that like I used to when I was 19 years old. Jared, on the other hand, can stay up 'til all hours of the night. My parents had Kiera for the whole day the next day, so Jared + I went and shared a large strawberry smoothie and rented Fireproof! AMAZING movie! Sure, the acting isn't the best compared to other movies, but the storyline is powerful! Parts of it moved me to tears and I was very much impacted by it.

Kiera has been SO much fun lately! We absolutely just love this age! She only slept 10 hours at my parents through the night (she normally sleeps 13 hours) and then had only a 1.5-hour nap (she usually naps anywhere from 2-4 hours) and then we went to a family gathering with her all evening and she was totally happy the whole time, despite being tired! She used to start crying as soon as she got really tired, so it's WONDERFUL to have that stage over with! She still gets cranky or fussy sometimes when she's tired, but for the most part she is a lot easier than she used to be! Praise the Lord!

On a different note, Kiera has something to tell you. :)