The Bensons

Closing Time!!!

2011-10-18T05:52:00.000-07:00

We close today on our house. Let the mayhem begin! The walk-through is at ten, and then we will zip over to the closing agent and sign about a zillion papers and then it will be all done! My mom is here this week to help with packing and watching the girls, cleaning the house, etc.... and I am SO thankful!!!
Once the house is ours, we will start with the floors- sanding, staining, sealing; then the walls, and then our stuff. And one day at a time, this old and tired house we start to shine again.

What a ham!

2011-09-13T07:22:00.000-07:00

It didn't take her long to realize this would get a reaction from us every time. She's quite a ham.

Big News...

2011-09-12T07:59:00.000-07:00

We have some big, awesome, life changing news....

We bought a house!!

Like, for real this time! As in, signed on the dotted line! It's ours! We close October 18th!

It's old, it's tired, it needs a lot of love. A LOT. And paint. LOTS of paint (any volunteers??).

I turned in the final paperwork this morning, and drove away in this weird state of almost crying almost throwing up- I mean, this is probably the biggest decision we have ever made as a married couple. And it is DEFINITELY the most money we have ever spent.

But, we are excited. Excited to get to work and transform this old, tired, neglected house into a place of beauty, rest, welcome, and LIFE.

And, excited to spend early fall mornings out here, tucked under a blanket, with a cup of something warm.

What? Did you think I was going to say we were expecting again? Come on! Give a girl a break!

Hellllooooo!

2011-07-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

Sooooo, almost five (FIVE!!!) months ago I posted on Charlie's birthday. This is unacceptable! So much has happened since then!! I'm not feeling guilty for my silence- anyone with littles running around understands how much of a success it is just to have dinner on the table and clothes washed on a regular basis. But, I do feel sad since this little blog has been a sort of journal of the past 4 years of the Benson clan, and so many important things have gone undocumented!

That being said, I'm going to attempt to get a little caught up on what we've been up to the past few months. The next few posts will be oooooold news, so feel free to scroll through! They're mostly for my benefit (and the grandparents'), anyways!!!

So we did celebrate when Charlotte turned 1. We had some friends over for cake and partied down! Henry, Charlotte's future bf, turned one just a few weeks before, and his bday party got canceled due to the poor little buddy getting sick, so we honored him, too.

As you can see, Abby was totally into the whole "party" thing.

Charlotte sort of picked at the cake for a while...

...before she grabbed it and started chowing down like it was a piece of corn on the cob!

It was so much fun celebrating her, our sweet, hilarious, cuddly, adventurous little girl!

One year

2011-03-11T21:44:00.000-08:00

My favorite part of the hospital stay after having a baby is that first evening. Visitors have gone home, the bustle of the maternity ward has settled a bit, lights are turned down, the nurses come in slowly and quietly and leave quickly, Mommy is (hopefully) showered and changed into comfy pj's, baby is swaddled and sleeping. Finally, FINALLY, I get her all to myself.
I remember that first night with Charlotte like it was just last night. I remember what it was like to look into the hospital bassinet and see her sleeping so soundly, belly full. I remember looking at her with wonder at who this new little one was going to become. I remember scooping her up, climbing into bed, and just holding her close. Smelling her sweet baby skin. Heart full, so in love. Nothing needing to get done but enjoy her, know her, love her.

Happy Birthday sweet one. How we have enjoyed you this past year! And OH, the joys that are to come!

This is not a Keurig

2011-03-11T20:01:00.000-08:00

This evening as I was straightening up the kitchen, I noticed something new on the counter.

Me: Andy, what is this?
Andy: Oh, that's that one-cup coffee maker you said you wanted.
Me: What? When did I say that?
Andy: A few weeks ago, when I said that I didn't need the one-cup coffee maker at my office anymore, you said you wanted it.
Me: You mean, this coffee maker that is just like the one we already have on our counter, it just holds less water and fewer grounds and therefore a smaller cup of coffee...?
Andy: Well, you loved the Weymouth's Keurig so much, and it's basically the same thing- see, you don't even need a filter!
Me: But you still have to add water and grounds...
Andy: yeah...
Me: And you have to clean it out after each use..
Andy: yeah...
Me: And we would just stick it on the counter right next to our other, bigger, holds-enough-coffee-I-can-brew-one-pot-for-my-morning-AND-afternoon-fix-coffee maker?
Andy: yeah...

Me: This is not a Keurig.
Andy: No, guess not.

(And for the record, I have absoluetely NO memory of any sort of conversation asking for this coffee maker... hahaha.)

repentance and faith

2011-03-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

If you are a mom, and you ever struggle with anger and repenting before your children, you should read this post.

repenting with my children

This is my favorite quote from the article: "I went to bed with a renewed confidence in God's ability to redeem the worst of what's in me and instead of ruining my kids with it (which is a life long fear of mine), actually use it for all of our good to transform us into His image. Thy Kingdom come, O Lord."

It really spoke to me today, to exactly where I am right now in my mothering.

I have heard it said so many times that all of life is a cycle of faith and repentance. Faith, repentance, faith, repentance, faith.... It is the same with mothering. All of my days look like this- sin against my children (at this point, Abby), repent, receive her forgiveness, sin again, repent, forgiveness... and it can all get so, so discouraging at times. But God is so, so faithful, and is redeeming this mess of a mother, and is bringing forth so much fruit even in the middle of desert places. I am humbled and thankful for His work. Without His grace, this family would be doomed. Really, I mean that. Without His grace I know my children would grow up to resent me, or fear me, or... I don't know what! But somehow, he brings beauty out of even our ugliest of days, and he is knitting us together. Oh how I need Him! Thy Kingdom come, O Lord!

And this girl...

2011-02-24T13:30:00.000-08:00

This girl?

She's growing more beautiful every day.

Inside and out.

I can hardly stand it, she is growing up way too fast, right before my eyes.

Oh, that I could keep her my little girl forever!

Sweet Charlie

2011-02-24T13:13:00.000-08:00

This girl

has stolen my heart

has filled our home with so much laughter

has made our family so much fuller

has wooed us with her smile

has won us over with her sweet demeanor

She has captured us all!

Abbyisms

2011-02-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

In an effort to get back into the habit of writing more regularly around here, I thought I would break my two month silence with a quote from the three-year-old.

We were playing around with paper towels and water tinted with food coloring this morning (way less messy than it sounds, I promise!), and after about an half an hour Abby's hands had a few spots of color on them.

Me: "Abby, we need to wash your hands, you have dye all over them"
Abby: "they died? on the cross?"
me: "no, what? no, Jesus died on the cross, and your hands have dye on them, see all the colors? That's called 'dye,' but not like when someone or something 'dies.'"
Abby: "Oh. my hands died. And Jesus has colors on dem."
me: "Ummmm, no. what??"

How do you explain the difference between "dye" and "die" to a three-year-old?

Happy #3 Abby!!

2010-11-27T18:16:00.001-08:00

Abby got to pick what she wanted for dinner the night of her actual birthday. She picked chicken nuggets, fries, and mac and cheese. Go figure. So I made her homemade chicken nuggets and fries. She took one bite and said, "these aren't Chick-fil-A!!" Haha, oh, well.

We celebrated Abby's birthday with a little party with some family and friends at our house last weekend.

When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, her only request was "PINK!!"

The kiddos played a few rounds of musical "chairs."

And then we had a dance party, of course!

Abby and her buddy Campbell

Sweet Catherine and Elliott

Charlie got lots of love from Aunt Katie

And of course, we had to have a pinata!!

Opening lots of presents- she got so many fun things!! Thanks everyone!

Oh, Abby, what fun you are!! How fun it is to celebrate you! I know this next year is going to be filled with as much fun and wonder as the last year has been!

Looking back: October

2010-11-24T19:32:00.000-08:00

And finally, for all of our fans out there, a peek into what we have been up to lately!!

October was a FULL month for us this year. We were living at Andy's parents for a good bit of it, moved into our new house mid-month, celebrated three birthdays, celebrated Halloween, and enjoyed school and friends in between.

Abby's hair is finally long enough and she is finally able to sit still long enough for me to do fun things with it. I have put her hair into braids like these several times for school. Doesn't she look like such a big girl??

And my Charlie- look at this girl! She is growing up so fast. She has such a sweet disposition, she has this smile that will just make you melt.

I put a movie on while I was getting dinner started the other day. Charlie was playing with some of her toys on the floor. Abby wanted to sit next to her, so she pulled a chair up right next to her and plopped down. They sat like this for a good half an hour. So cute!!

We celebrated Andy's birthday out on our screened in porch. It was a bit chilly but it was fun to enjoy eating outside.

Abby chose to be Tinkerbell for Halloween, so I made this costume for her. Do you see this face?? She likes to pose for me.

She had a party in her class and Charlotte and I went to hangout for the morning. It was so fun to watch her interact with all her little buddies. And they were all so cute!

This is Abby and her buddy Campbell. These two have the sweetest little friendship. They LOVE each other. In fact, they love each other so much that they will hug each other so hard that they fall over in a heap of giggles. I am so glad that they have each other!

Abby at her desk. LOVE love love.

We went to Hunt Club Farm to pick pumpkins the weekend before Halloween. They have a petting zoo there and Abby really enjoyed walking around looking at all the animals.

Me and my girls

Love this face!

Look how much Abby has grown!! I love this picture of her from last year (on the bottom). It's amazing to me how much she has changed in just a year.

My sweet little pumpkins

Getting ready for Trick-Or-Treating

Alright, can you tell which one is Abby and which one is Charlotte??

How about in these??

We took Abby trick-or-treating along with her buddy Myles. Isn't his costume amazing? I love that face!!

Sweet little baby bats- Owen and Charlotte

The next day I let Abby look over her candy. I walked out of the room for a bit to do dishes, and when I walked back in this is what I found- she had sorted out all of her candy into little piles by type. Oh. my. goodness. She is SO my child!

They LOVE love bath time together!!

Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with your families!!

Surprised by Joy

2010-11-15T20:42:00.000-08:00

I can still remember perfectly every detail of those three minutes. Setting the stick on the vanity, walking away because it was going to drive me crazy standing there waiting for the answer, setting the timer for 3 minutes, checking my email, timer went off, walking back into the bathroom, looking down at the stick...

Two pink lines.

What.

I was sure that one was a defect, so I opened a second test, and went through the same steps all over again.

Two pink lines. Again.

And then my mind literally exploded. I was plunged into a whirlwind of emotions; Excitement, fear, happiness, anger (this was not the plan, this was two years too early!!), guilt (how can I feel anything but happiness over this? what kind of person am I? I clearly don't deserve this baby...), confusion (what happened to "the plan"??), fear (what if something happens to him/her? how do I tell my boss? Andy is going to grad-school and I was supposed to work full time and we won't have any money and what's going to happen now??), wonder (there is a BABY inside of me!).
I picked up the phone to call Andy and tell him, but the second he answered I started sobbing uncontrollably. All I could say is "come home, NOW." He thought someone in my family had died. He was home in less than 10 minutes.
As soon as he walked in I told him. And his face broke into the biggest grin I have ever seen. You would have thought someone had just told him he won the lottery and would never have to work again!

And we had won the lottery. Abigail Shea made our two-some into a family 9 months later, on November 16th 2007. And from the very beginning, she brought joy and delight into our home.

I think the phrase that best describes the past three years of being Abby's mommy is "surprised by joy." Not that I am surprised that it has been a joy- I knew I would love being her mom and find it very fulfilling and joy-filled. I just didn't know how much. And I didn't know the means that God would use to bring about this joy.

I think I thought it would just be so fun, and that she would just be so cute and sweet, and it would just be so great teaching her things and playing together and spending our days together, and that naturally it would all just be a joy! Part of that is true- she IS cute and sweet, and it IS great teaching and shepherding her, and I DO love playing with her and being with her. Being her mommy brings me much happiness.

But my greatest moments of joy in motherhood have been when the Lord has brought us through trials, and struggles, and suffering.

A month before Abby was due, it was discovered that Andy had a golf-ball sized tumor in his brain, pressing on his brain stem. He needed surgery right away. It probably wasn't cancer and was highly treatable, but there were lots of risks involved in surgery. Lots of things that might never be the same again. When they wheeled him away for his 9-hour long surgery, I knew that there was a chance that he might never be the same again, or worse, that something could happen during surgery and I could become a widow at age 25. And on top of all that, I had a newborn who needed constant care. Abby turned 1 month old in the hospital. Lots of people said to me during and after the surgery (and even sometimes now when I tell the story), "I can't imagine how you could ever do that with a one-month old!" But God knew. He knew that there would be dark moments and times when I would doubt that He was in control, and good, and trustworthy. And He knew that I would forget His faithfulness. And so He planned Abby long before we knew about Andy's tumor, and gave her to us as a tangible reminder of His love and care for us. She was a light in the midst of a really scary time. Sitting in the waiting room for hours upon hours, day after day, her smiles and coos warmed us, helped us battle boredom, and reminded us to hope instead of worry. Her presence actually helped Andy to heal- in his darkest moments, bringing her into his room would instantly lift his spirits. Suddenly, it totally made sense why He brought her to us earlier than our "plan." He knew. She was a daily reminder to me that God loved me deeply, was holding us and sustaining us, and that He was working good in ALL things. That's why we named her "Abigail." It means "joy of the father," or "father in rejoicing." She is a daily reminder to us that our Father rejoices over us with singing- of the joy that comes only from our Heavenly Father who loves to give His children good things. In the midst of this trial, He surprised me with joy.

When Abby hit about 2, I suddenly understood the "terrible" in "terrible two's." Tantrums, tears, defiance, that "look" that says, "how DARE you say 'no' to ME!" Who was this child?? It was a daily struggle for me to keep calm, stay patient, and to correct her gently. Shortly after Charlotte was born we hit an all-time low. Tantrums were happening multiple times a day, my attention was divided between the two girls, and it seemed like most of my time with her was spent threatening and disciplining. Instead of enjoying her, we were battling and struggling. The days became all about surviving. For the first time I found myself wondering "is this it? Is this all God has for me in motherhood? Do I really want four of these?" It felt joyless and empty.
And then I started to pray. For an extra measure of patience that day. For wisdom in how to best discipline, shepherd, teach. For more love for her in her ugliest moments. For gentleness. For compassion. For her to listen and obey. For a breakthrough. And the Lord started to work in my heart. But instead of changing her, or instantly turning me into a better person, making me more patient and giving me better methods, He started to show me how my heart desperately needed to change. How I was in desperate need of His patience, love, compassion and grace. The more I saw her sin, the more I saw my own, and the uglier her tantrums, the more I saw the reality of the ugliness in my own heart. The more I prayed for help, the more He showed me the depth of my need for Him, and the more He began to meet these needs for me. Motherhood slowly began to be less about me "getting it right" and having a "perfect" day, and more about me meeting with Jesus and trusting Him to supply me with all that I needed to get through the days. And surprisingly, the less I focused on getting the results I wanted and the more I focused on bringing her to Jesus, the better our days got. The tantrums became less. The moments of desperation fewer.
We still have hard days, and battles and moments of struggle. Lots- she is my child and has my strong will! But instead of leading me to despair, they drive me to the cross. And instead of wearing me down, they are making me grow. As I learn to trust in Jesus more, He is making me into the mommy He has called me to be. Most importantly, my struggles in motherhood are helping me to know Jesus in a deeper way than ever before. In the midst of the struggles of tantrums and tears, He is surprising me with joy.

And lastly, I never knew how much joy I would have in getting to know my child. I knew it would be fun. I knew I would love her. But I just didn't know it would be this great. All the little things that make Abby who she is, I love every single one of them. How she started talking in full sentences early and will. not. stop. How she loves to sing but she gets a lot of the words wrong and sometimes mixes songs together. How she will sit and read all the books on her bookshelf for an hour. How she has to put EVERYTHING in her mouth and it drives me crazy! How she asks, "are you happy, Mommy?" when she senses I am upset with her, and how much it crushes her if I am angry with her. How she is so sensitive to our feelings. How she follows big girls around, copying everything they do. How big her eyes get when she asks me a question. How she is timid in new situations with new people. Her incredible amount of energy- she is crazy!! How loud she is. How she laughs. How she loves to hear stories about Jesus and to pray. How she is so proud to be a big sister- when people come up to us in the store she stands proudly and says "this is my baby sister Charlotte!" How she tries to comfort Charlotte when she is crying. How inquisitive she is. Oh I could go on for pages and pages. I knew I would love her. I just didn't know it would be this much. In the midst of all that makes her who she is, He is surprising me with so much joy.

So, I always knew that being a parent would be a joy. I just never knew it would happen quite this way.

Happy Birthday my little bumblebee. I love you more than you will ever know, and I am so proud to be your mommy.

Thoughts?

2010-09-17T14:06:00.001-07:00

I have been thinking that the black background with white writing is a little hard to read- is it just me? So I thought I would try out a white background with black writing... what do you guys think? Which one is better??

Tidbits

2010-09-14T12:43:00.001-07:00

Life is going at about 180 mph and isn't showing any signs of slowing down any time soon. No time for a longer post, so in the interest of keeping all 10 of you who regularly stop here up to date on our crazy life, I thought I'de just do a quick bullet list of what we've been up to lately, and some things I have been thinking about.

We moved two weeks ago. We are in the process of purchasing our first home (YIKES!! SERIOUS YIKES!!!), but our lease ran out before the house closed. So two weeks ago we packed up our house, put it in storage, and moved in with Andy's parents in Virginia Beach. Yup, right at the beginning of Abby's first year of preschool and in the middle of the busiest time of the year for me on campus. We like to live on the edge.

My in-laws are amazing. I'm sure that when you finally get to be an empty nester, you never imagine that your children will be moving back in with you, with their children and animals in tow. We bring a LOT of mess and noise and craziness and business with us. But Bruce and Trisha have welcomed us graciously and provided for us so lovingly. Some people would have a near panic attack at the thought of moving in with their parents/in-laws, but so far it has been great and we have really enjoyed living with them. We are, however, counting down the days until we get our house and get to be back in Norfolk near all of our friends.

It is so crazy and so the Lord that I am even saying that last sentence- that I MISS NORFOLK! Norfolk, the last place in Virginia I wanted to live when Andy was doing the job search a year-and-a-half ago. Norfolk, the place I was sure I would hate forever, after the first month here missing Blacksburg and Harrisonburg and all my friends and being able to walk to campus. I miss Norfolk and all it's quirkiness.

Did Saturday really happen? What??? This is the first time my loves for both JMU AND Hokie football have collided. After the game Saturday I felt both elated for my Dukes and totally bummed for my Hokies. I still feel bad that their season is pretty much over now, but I am pretty excited about all the new buzz about Dukes football that I am seeing. Common, Big East....

And speaking of Hokie football, Frank Beamer is the man. We listened to his post-game interview, and I was reminded again of what a level-headed, humble guy he is.

I've been really struggling with putting Abby in pre-school lately. I feel confident that it's the right thing for her right now- and it's only a total of 6 hours a week, for pete's sake! But lately, I have been really wrestling with feelings of guilt and regret over the last (almost) 3 years of her life. Guilt over all the ways I have sinned against her and all the mistakes I have made already (and she isn't even a teenager yet!) Regret over all the things I never did with her that I wanted to do. It's normal mommy guilt I know. But, I think it reveals a deeper heart struggle- my lack of faith in Jesus to be the one who meets all of her needs perfectly, and my lack of faith in Him to spread his grace over all of my mistakes and failures. And, my perfectionism, pride, and idolatry. Ugh. So, I am wrestling- surrendering some things and still clinging to others, but wrestling nonetheless. And trusting the Spirit will work in me and grow me in dependance on Him.

There are far too many drive-through Starbucks down here. I know of three between the Benson's house and preschool and campus. This is not good for my wallet or my post-baby belly.

Charlotte is 6 months old now. HALF OF A YEAR! Say what?? She is rolling all over the place, trying to crawl, almost sitting, eating solid foods (and loving it! and still nursing 6x a day-the girl loves her groceries!), sleeping until 6am, and looking more and more like Abby every day. Seriously, I call her "Abby Shea" all the time by mistake because she looks and acts just like baby Abby. I love love having a baby around again and could just eat her to pieces. She is so much fun and we love her so much!

Yesterday evening I overheard Abby playing with her dolly. This is what I heard: "NO Dolly! STAY. IN. BED. Get out of bed one more time and get a SPANKING!" Two seconds later: "Ok Dolly, get a spanking!" She then grabbed her dolly, laid her face down on her lap, and spanked her! I was half cracking up, half concerned, because this is exactly what does down every night with HER, and it's really revealing to hear your child repeat back what they hear you saying to them. But then, I peeked in and saw her hugging her dolly, saying "Pray God, pray Dolly listen, pray Dolly stay in bed, pray Dolly to obey. Yuv you, amen." It was encouraging, because we always pray that she will really "get" that when we do spank her, it is to teach her to obey us and God and to restore her relationship with us and with Him, not to punish her or to manipulate her to obey us out of fear. Disobedience is always sad, and spankings are too, but reconciliation is sweet and restoration is always promised!

Back to house-buying: The fact that we are in the process of buying a house here in Norfolk is really, really huge if you know me at all and know my dream of raising my children a block away from JMU. The past five years have looked something like this: ask for Hburg, looks like Lord is saying "yes," looks like He is saying "not now," get angry, surrender and trust Him, move to Blacksburg, see God's provision in a new place with new friends and see that His ways are better than mine, looks like He might give us Hburg now, ask for Hburg, looks like His is saying (again) "not now," get angry, surrender and trust Him, move to Norfolk, see His provision and goodness again and that His ways are (still) better than mine, looks like He might be opening a door and finally saying "yes" now, ask ask ask like crazy, looks like His answer is still "not now," pray about what it would look like to really settle in and invest in this place- our city, our church, our friends. And that's where I am. Praying, trusting, surrendering. I really, REALLY know that His ways are far better than mine. There have been way too many tangible reminders of this in my life over the past three years. I don't know if He will ever say "yes" to Harrisonburg. I still ask Him to, someday. But I think I am finally at a place where I will be "okay" if he doesn't.

Our close friends are waiting to welcome their first baby, a girl, into the world any minute now!! We are on pins and needles waiting to hear news that they are in the hospital. They are already a few days past their due date, which I know is really discouraging and frustrating. So if you think about it, pray for them?! This baby is the answer to so many prayers, and this family has been through a lot in the past year. We cannot cannot wait to meet her!!!

pure awesome

2010-08-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

Have you seen this website? It is aMAzing! It cracks me up so much.

Catalog Living

Its a blog by actor/comedian Molly Erdman- she's in those Sonic commercials. She takes pages from catalogues and puts funny captions on them. Cracks me up every time.

And if you are anything like me and have serious envy issues every time you get your Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, or Anthropologie's in the mail, than this site will help put things into perspective!

Here's an example of one of her posts:

Life’s simple pleasures…

After a long day, nothing pleased Gary more than sitting down to a tasty bowl of rocks with his best friend Gus at his feet.

"Am I pretty, Mommy?"

2010-08-20T08:02:00.000-07:00

She's been into princesses lately. Obsessed, really. She watches the movies, she reads the books, she puts on her tutu and dances around the kitchen and announces to us "I am a princess, and Daddy is the prince!!" She is ALL. GIRL.

Lately she has taken to standing in front of the full-length mirror, brushing her hair and making different faces at herself. Yesterday I walked by and she said to me, "am I pretty, Mommy?"
"Oh yes, Abby, you are my beautiful girl, and I love you."
"Okay," she said.

Her question stopped me in my tracks, though. Where in the world did that come from?? Is she just repeating back things she's heard me say, or is she really beginning to wonder about her looks? And even if she doesn't really "mean" it this time, how long before she really does? How long until she thinks differently about the clothes she chooses in the morning, or the way she fixes her hair, or, (yikes!!) makeup!!! Or her body- those chubby yummy knees I love to kiss, and her sweet belly I tickle, and her face that is so beautiful to me it takes my breath away sometimes- when will she start despising these, too?
Or, how can I shepherd her well so that she doesn't end up struggling in these ways (or at least, struggles less?) My tendency is to want to shelter her completely from all the ways the world speaks about beauty. I could take away all the Disney movies, get the princesses out of the house, and heck, let's just get rid of the television all together! That thing is the devil!!

But that isn't realistic, or even healthy. I can't shelter her forever, and someday she is going to need to know how to interpret the world around her, and all it's mess, for herself. So maybe Jesus has something more for my parenting. Maybe He wants to redeem the broken ways the world speaks about beauty and give us a whole picture of who he has made us to be.

Maybe Cinderella can teach us that though she was pretty on the outside for sure, her looks weren't what made her truly beautiful. Prince Charming had a lot of other women to choose from and they must have all been just as pretty as Cinderella. What made her stand out from all the rest was her kind and gentle spirit. And how she served her stepmother and stepsisters with a cheerful heart even though they oppressed her. And how she cared for the lowliest of creatures- the mice and the barn dog.

And while I teach my girls about the qualities that Cinderella had that made her beautiful, I can also teach them about where the power comes from to have these qualities. Because I can't make myself more beautiful. Try as I might, I just can't make myself kinder, or gentler, or more just, or more giving. I always come up short.

There was One who did all these things perfectly, and who knew from the beginning that despite my best efforts I would fall short, but who put his Spirit in me to give me the power to life a life of beauty for Him. And I can teach my girls about Him, and how he is making them more and more beautiful as they trust in Him.

Dinner Tonight: Bulgogi

2010-08-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

(image from www.seriouseats.com)

This is quickly becoming one of our favorite meals, and one of my favorites to prepare. Beef Bulgogi, also known as Korean Barbeque (but don't let that name fool you, it tastes NOTHING like American BBQ). Marinated steak cooked quickly in a skillet, served on a small piece of lettuce with a sponful of rice, and a little dallop of hoisin sauce on top, rolled up and eaten with your hands... yummy goodness!!

The first time I had it was back in Harrisonburg at our friend/neighbor's house. Heidi is one of the best cooks I know, and she invited me over for lunch one afternoon and this is what we had. I had forgotten about it until a few months ago when on a whim I emailed her and asked her for the recipe- I was craving it something bad! This summer I have probably made it 4 or 5 times, and will make it again! Andy loves it, Abby loves it, it's super easy to make, and if you use a lean cut of meat it's pretty healthy, too! (Or you can go even healthier and use chicken. But we love us some red meat around here.) And, it's one of those meals that you can eat a ton of and just feel gooooood when you are finished- not stuffed, not "I can't believe I just ate that, I must have gained 5 pounds," and not, "that's it??" Just satisfied.

Anyways, here is the recipe I use. If you google "Bulgogi" you can find other, much more complicated recipes for it. But I am all about homemade food that has few ingredients and still tastes heavenly!

Marinate beef for several hours in:
3 T. soy sauce
1 T. sesame oil
1 T. sesame seeds
1 clove garlic, minced
1 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
-Cooke rice. I use white sticky rice especially for sushi, it works the best, but you can also use jasmine or brown rice.
-Saute beef in a skillet or fry pan on the stove until done, 8-10 minutes.
-Serve with rice on a small piece of lettuce- Bibb, iceberg, or any other.
-Top with a little bit of hoisin sauce or soy sauce. Roll up and enjoy!

-You can buy sesame seeds pretty cheap in the asian section- cheaper than in the spice aisle.
-I usually pick a thin piece of beef that is especially for sauteeing. But you can use whatever cut you like.

See?? Easy Peasy!!

Summer Happenings Part 2

2010-08-16T12:34:00.001-07:00

Weddings of college friends are the best, aren't they? There is really nothing like these mini-reunions; getting to see old friends and meet new spouses and children, watching your friend marry the woman/man of their dreams, and going crazy on the dance floor together, just like the old days! We had the privilege of being part of the wedding of one of our closest friends this summer. Chris Loose was one of our groomsmen, and then about a month and a half ago Andy got to stand beside him as he married his love, Rachel.

To make it even better, the wedding was only 45 minutes from our dear friends the Weymouths, so we got to spend lots of time with them as well, and Abby got lots of time with her bestest friend Lallie-B.

On the way to Asheville we stopped for the night at a hotel, to break the trip up a bit (8 hours is reallllllly long with a toddler and a newborn!!). The girls did GREAT with their first hotel stay! I have to say, I was not looking forward to this part of trip- too many bad memories from my childhood of road trips to MInnesota and Disney World. Me+Dan+Matt+8 hours stuffed inside a cramped station wagon+two beds in one tiny hotel room DOES NOT EQUAL fun. Especially when it came time to decide who got to sleep on the lone cot. But I digress....

Charlotte's new favorite way to fall asleep

Abby got a double bed all to herself. Lucky girl. Enjoy it while it lasts, kiddo...

Once we got to the Weymouths, it was party time!!! The girls wasted no time breaking it down.

We are saving these up for their dorm room walls. That's right I said it- we have already applied for early admission for them to be roommates at JMU in 2026. Class of 2030!!

(ummm can you even imagine 2030? That seems forever from now. I will be 46. YIKES.)

After bath time, snuggle time before bed

Abby's favorite thing all weekend: going through all of Lallie's accessories. Shoes, hair clips, head bands, oh my!!

The girls: Lallie Beth, Madeleine, Charlotte, and Abby

Alexe set up mini pedicures on the front porch.

Such cute pink toes!

We left Abby with the Weymouth's Friday afternoon so we could go to the Rehearsal Dinner and then the wedding the next day without our crazy preschooler in tow. THANK YOU THANK YOU Weymouths!!! Seriously, you know you have good friends when on top of having house guests in and out of their home for 7 days, they are also willing to watch your kid for you for almost a whole weekend.

At the rehearsal:

They look so happy!!

I wish you could have seen his face all weekend. Chris is normally a happy guy, but I have never seen him smile so much in the 8 years I have known him.

At the wedding:

Chris and Rachel met while serving together on an InterVarsity mission trip to Mongolia a few summers ago, but their relationship didn't technically start then. Chris went back to Mongolia to do full time campus ministry for a few years, and during his time over there Rachel ended up going over for a period of time as well, and their romance began then! They are such a great match for each other, and their story is such a reminder to me (and everyone!) of God's sovereignty, provision and care for His children. Their reception was Mongolian themed, including the cake! How fun!!

In Mongolia it is custom for the bride and groom to sing a song to everyone at the wedding reception. So, Chris and Rachel sang a song to us in Mongolian as well!

What a handsome couple!! Rachel was gorgeous, and glowing.

It was so great to catch up with so many college friends, and some of our best friends in the world

William and Amy Roy, Me, and Mark and Emily Davis. William, Mark, Andy, and Chris lived together for a year after college, the year Andy and I were engaged. I have so many great memories with these guys, and now with their spouses, too. Such great friends!

William you are going to be an amazing Dad! No pressure!! haha

I'm pretty sure we were cracking up at Chris dancing to Freebird. A tradition from his college days.

Yep, and here it is. Rachel joined in and Chris's air guitar solo became a duet. This was probably one of the highlights of the evening.

It was fitting that our good friend Brandon caught the garter, as he and his wife, Amy, got married a few weekends ago!

Sending them off

I know I keep saying this, but what good friends we have! Chris has been such an encouragement to Andy over the years. He has played a big part in some of the major moments in our relationship- when Andy was first deciding whether or not to pursue dating me and then when he was praying about marrying me, during our engagement, at our wedding, and he was even present for our first big fight! So, this wedding was really special for us and really more like having a sibling get married. We love you, Chris and Rachel, and we can't wait to visit you in Boston!!

Sister Love

2010-08-07T12:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon. Jack Johnson's soundtrack to Curious George is playing, Bruiser is curled up on the welcome mat, soaking in the sun. I am working on crust for a cherry pie I have been craving for weeks now, and the girls are "playing" in the living room. Charlotte is lounging in her bouncy chair, and Abby is perched next to her on the floor, reading books to her. Charlotte's eyes are fixed on Abby, and nothing, not even Bruiser's surprise BARK at the mailman going by, can tear them away from her. Normally I am her favorite person in the world (which has nothing to do with me and everything to do with nursing), but when Abby walks in the room, nothing else in the world matters!
Abby is talking so sweetly to her, pausing every couple of minutes to show her a picture from one of her books. Charlotte tries to talk back with little coos and gurgles. I want to bottle this moment up and keep it forever- the peaceful calm, the warmth, the love and joy between sisters.
How I long for them to cherish and enjoy one another like this as they grow up into young women! Only by His grace!!

Summer Happenings Part 1

2010-08-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

There has been SO MUCH going on this summer, we have hardly had a moment to stop and catch our breath!! We've been out of town a lot for some pretty significant events- a big wedding, family reunions, big birthdays, a baby shower for some really close friends- and, we've had visitors and lots going on around Norfolk, too! I'm going to try to get caught up over the next few days (err... maybe weeks? we'll see!!). Here is part 1!

Dan and Katie came for a visit in June. We slept in, enjoyed big breakfasts, played games, and went to the beach!

Katie is SO good with the girls. It probably helps that she has a lot of other nieces and nephews already! The girls (Abby especially!!) totally dote on her and she is so good about playing with them and loving on them.

Our typical beach positions:

I cannot, for the life of me, get him to take a serious picture!!

Is the beach not the best place in the world to take a nap??

Swaddled, nice and cozy!

Abby let us bury her in the sand. It took us a while to get her to stay still enough to build the little mermaid body around her. She loved it. For about 5 seconds. Just long enough to snap this photo!

She wants to be just like her aunt. I love it!

Lately...

2010-06-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

It seems like since summer began, we have been on the go non-stop! Summer for me starts when students go home at the beginning of May. I have a week of "ahhhhhh, I have three whole months to do all the special projects I have been wanting to tackle, clean my house thoroughly, and, when Trisha comes over, go to Starbucks to read instead of plan!!" And then reality sets in. Our "summer" is often actually busier than the rest of the year, with family reunions, vacation, weddings, holidays, showers, VBS, and so on... Is this just me or do others share in my summer lament? I need a vacation from vacation!

Anyways, as promised, here is an update on what has been going on at the Benson house lately.

Abby and Charlotte are starting to interact a lot more. Abby loves, LOVES her little sister. She loves to read to her, play under the play gym with her, tickle her, giver her hugs and kisses, and try to make her laugh. Charlotte loves to watch Abby and saves all of her biggest smiles for her big Sis. I love to watch their relationship grow even at such a young age. Much of my prayer time right now includes me praying specifically that we would see fruit later on from our efforts now to teach our girls to love, honor, and respect one another. I spent too much time when I was younger competing and being angry with my brothers, often viewing them as a nuisance instead of a blessing. I know a lot of this is normal, and I am so thankful that I can now say that my brothers are two of my best friends in the whole world. So I trust that whatever their middle school years look like, they will one day enjoy each other. But in the meantime, I want to continue to encourage and teach them how to encourage one another and be a blessing to each other.

Charlotte loves her baths! It is so hot and sticky here that I am finding myself giving her a bath almost daily. I think Abby got a bath maybe once a week at this age, haha. But, Abby likes to "help" me wash Charlotte (and by "help" I mean dump water all over her face, poke her eyes, and pour an entire bottle of baby wash into the tub. Yup).

This is what happens when you give a 2 1/2-year-old markers and then turn your back to do the dishes. Mom fail. Abby win.

And, I think it might have been a little confusing that in the middle of my scolding, I grabbed the camera and said "give me a smile, Abby!" and the proceeded to put her into time out. Oh well.

More sister love. Abby is showing Charlotte her Sesame Street Letter Flashcards (but don't get any ideas that I am diligently teaching her the ABC's.... I have yet to go through them with her. She just likes to look at the pictures and pull out all the ones with Abby Cadaby one them...).

Will you look at this cuteness? I can't get enough of it!! I could gobble her up!

As you can see, Charlotte is captivated by Abby! She already looks up to her.

Sleeping sweetness. She is a great napper already. I try not to let her nap anywhere but her bassinet if we are at home now, but sometimes she falls asleep before I can get her swaddled and into our room. And then she just looks to peaceful to be moved!

Ummm seriously? Could you be any cuter??? And would you just look at that yummy belly!!

I had a week of camp for InterVaristy back in May, and my Mom came with me to watch the girls while I was working with students during the day. The girls did awesome, thanks to my Mom the Baby Whisperer. And, thanks to Abby becoming BFF's with one of my co-workers daughters, Sophia.

Abby's new obsession= ballet!! There is a dance studio next to a restaurant we go to with Andy's parents, and Abby likes to stop and watch the big girls dance on our way out. The last time we were there, one of the managers came out and invited Abby in to watch the dancing. She took Abby through the studios, and to the changing room and warm-up room. Since then, Abby has been practicing her leg lifts (I dont know a single ballet term, forgive me!), and watching ballet movies on You-Tube.

Seriously? Do you see this face?

Waiting for Daddy to come home- the best part of our day!!

Laying out the squares for Charlotte's baby quilt. This tiny little quilt is taking me forever, and it's not even hard! It's just a quick little nine patch pattern. I'll show more pictures when it's finished!

Again, stop with the cuteness! I can't take it!

She started smiling around 9ish or 10ish weeks, and smiles all. the. time. now. I think my heart melts into the floor every time. There is something about the smiles both of my girls give. Or, I'm just a huge sap!

Charlotte goes crazy every time there is something hanging above her. Her play gym, the butterfly mobile hanging in their room, the hokie bird mobile over the crib... And most of the time Abby wants to climb in, too.

Did you notice Abby's big girl underwear a few pictures up? We have been working hard at potty training around here! She was pretty much trained before we left for ROckbridge. But, I had her in pull-ups the whole week because I didn't want to stick my mom with a newborn, a two year old, and potty accidents. Gotta take care of your caregivers!! So, she totally regressed and we've been working to get back into it ever since. For some reason she not only forgot everything she knew, but she also flat-out refused to go. Ever. So, with a few enticements by the names of Pez, Jelly Beans, and a Prize Box, we are now on track again. And, if she is trained by July 5th she gets to take Pre-Ballet!!

All sorts of big-girl things going on around here. We switched Abby from her crib to a toddler bed a week ago, and at first it was not going well. So, I got the idea from my bloggy friend Naomi Glenn to have a "Big Girl Bed Party." She picked out strawberry cupcakes with strawberry icing (can you tell we love pink around here?), and Tinkerbell decorations. We even put a candle into a cupcake and sang "happy big girl bed to you!!" She took a much better nap that day!

This was my favorite cupcake. She just kept dumping on the yellow sprinkles!

Now, if someone could please send Abby a memo about sleeping past 5:45am, that would be great. Now that she can get in and out of bed herself, she gets up wayyyy early in the morning, and gets up too early from her naps as well. I'm not opposed to getting up if she is really ready, but the girl is so sleep deprived and exhausted. Particularly with naps- she goes down great but then gets up after an hour, and she really needs a solid two hours, at least. Any ideas??

At least she's cute!

And, how could I not end on another cute one of Charlotte! She loves chowing down on her arms and hands. I think that when she figures it out, we might have a thumb sucker!

untitled

2010-06-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, it has been 3 weeks. 3 FULL weeks since my last post, and even longer since my last post with pictures and updates on the girls. This is unacceptable! I promise to update soon! We have finally recovered from a week away at Rockbridge for InterVaristy's yearly chapter camp, and a long weekend with family, and a four-day weekend for just the four of us. Life is returning to "normal," Abby is back to potty training (we went to the Children's Museum today and were gone for 3 hours, and had NO accidents-YAY!!!), and Charlotte is sleeping through the night and discovering her hands!
Also, in other random news, Andy is the best husband ever. More on that later, but I have been realizing more and more lately how completely BLESSED I am to have such a great husband who continually dies to himself to love me and our girls well. He is Ephesians 5:25-29 in the flesh. Our 5th anniversary is coming up in a few weeks. I cannot wrap my mind around how much I have been changed to my very core from being married to him. Oh I love him so!

And one last thing. As a reward for being potty trained, we are signing Abby up for 6 sessions of pre-ballet this summer. I might not be able to handle the cuteness of seeing her dance around in a little leotard.

Today, just another day...

2010-05-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

This morning did not start out well. Abby had to be woken up to get ready for church and she was already extremely sleep deprived from several days in a row of late naps and late bedtimes. We were at the Grandparents house all last week and I let our schedule slide wayyyyy too much and we are paying for it now. Same with potty training. This week= sleep and potty boot camp!

So she was a crabby mess (she may or may not get that from me...). Everything was a battle. Everything produced tears and shrieks and a loud "NO Mommy, STOP! GO AWAY, MOMMY!!"
Charlotte woke up as we dressed her and got her buckled into her carseat, and started crying huge crocodile tears that turned into another loud, sobbing mess. We were already running late when I realized that Charlotte's sobbing was coming from the fact that she was starving and needed to nurse. We had two choices: feed her before leaving and be really really late to church, or hope that she would fall asleep in the car on the way there. We went with plan B. She did not cooperate.
So as we were driving down Chesapeake Ave with still 10 minutes to go, Abby screaming and Charlotte sobbing, I turned to Andy and said, "Happy Mother's Day to me! BIG thumbs up!"
This was NOT how MY day was supposed to go.
Today was Mother's Day, and it was supposed to be filled with reminders of how wonderful it is to be a mom and have a mom. But for me, it started with a reminder of all the not so fun parts of motherhood. The parts that often leave me tired, discouraged, or just plain pulling my hair out in desperation.

For some women, though, these are the moments they long for. These are moments that keep slipping from their grasp as they loose yet another baby, or another adoption attempt fails, or they hear the news from another doctor that the chances are very very slim that they will ever be able to conceive. These moments that I would love to forget and be done with are moments that another woman would do anything to experience.

Mother's Day is a hard day for so many, and for so many of my friends. It's a reminder of another year gone by without a child. Or, its a reminder of the mother they lost and another year of not having them be part of their life. For a lot of us Mother's Day is a wonderful day to celebrate and be celebrated. But for many, its a reminder of what has been lost or what might have been. For a lot of us its a fun, sunny, happy day. But for many, its a hard, sad day.

I only know a tiny bit of this sadness. Last year was a hard Mother's Day as we had lost our baby only a month and a half before. I was watching friend after friend get pregnant and had a huge case of the "what about me, Lord??"s. But then we got our Charlotte just a few months after that, and though the months following were still a tough journey, I hardly tasted what some women have. But, it still changed forever the way I view Mother's Day. Or, the way I think about my friends and women I know who are on a tough journey, on this day.

And, it changed the way I view mornings like this morning. Maybe not in the moment- I still get really overwhelmed and frustrated and even angry! I am so quick to forget how truly blessed I am to have even one beautiful healthy child. Who loves me! And talks to me, and sings to me, and prays for her friends and her bearbear, and who has the most beautiful BIG blue eyes in the world... When my heart stills and quiets enough, I can hear the Lord reminding me that these moments, in all their mess and confusion, are the best moments of my life, and are to be cherished.

So tonight, when the bedtime battle began (because despite our best efforts we still started way too late...), and Abby was screaming and kicking in her crib because she didn't want to go to sleep, I thanked the Lord for one more day with them. One more day full of sleepy eyes, big grins, temper tantrums, snot being smeared down my arm, marker all over her face right before we need to head out the door, strong wills, a quivering bottom lip, big beautiful blue eyes, refusing to keep her clip in her hair, nursing every two hours, waking up only 45 minutes into her nap and my ONLY alone time of the day, no more privacy, endless loads of laundry, peeing all over the floor RIGHT after she swore she "didn't hafta go!".... and so, SO much more.

Give me more days like these, Lord.

Love this

2010-04-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

I loved this post today on one of my favorite blogs, Design Mom (see it on the list to the right? go visit!!). So sweet, it made me want to write a letter to myself, too! Maybe to give to my girls one day when they have children of their own?
You can read it here, or here it is, cut and pasted:

This is a letter that I wrote to myself. I wrote it to a younger me with the advice that I wish I had known when I found out that I was pregnant with my first child.

Dear Me,

You’re standing in the bathroom, scared as hell, holding a positive pregnancy test in your hand. Yes you’re married. But no, you weren’t exactly planning on motherhood just yet. You’re terrified. And you’ve learned that it does matter if you forget to take The Pill for a day (maybe 2? 3? Oops.)

But calm down little girl. Wipe the tears off your face. And think about that little kid growing inside you. A little kid (a girl!) who will to love you more than anybody else. A girl who will run to find you first thing every morning. A girl who will cuddle with you for stories every night. A girl who will learn from you, depend on you, and frustrate you. But a girl that will awaken a piece of your heart that you didn’t know you had.

You’re scared. You’re in the middle of your last semester of college. Your husband has at least 2 years of school left as well. You’re poor. You’re really poor. And what about the teaching career you’ve dreamed of since you were just a kid yourself? You feel like you’re losing a part of yourself–sacrificing your body, your brain, your ambition. How can you be a mother? Feed, clothe, clean, teach, carry a child? You can’t even take care of yourself (see what you did with The Pill?) how can you take care of a baby?

Megan, you can be a mother. And you will be a mother—a mother who will cuddle and nurse and rock her baby just like mothers have from the beginning. You will be imperfect. You will worry, oh you will worry, but you will raise that baby the best you know how. And “the best you know how” will be more than good enough.

So, go tell that good husband of yours the good news. Because it is good news. A baby is great news. And go blow your last 5 bucks on some ice cream. Being a mom rocks.

Love,
Me

P.S. Should I also warn you about the twins you’ll have after that little girl? You’ll do okay by them, too.

Welcome to my heart

2010-04-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

Don't you love it when a book speaks to the depths of your heart, and puts into words the things you just cant seem to articulate?

This moved me today:

She says I shall now have one mouth the more to fill and two feet the more to shoe, more disturbed nights, more laborious days, and less leisure or visiting, reading, music, and drawing. Well! This is one side of the story, to be sure, but I look at the other. Here is a sweet fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery. Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which it dwells is worthy all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister in Christ’s name, I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to your mother’s heart, welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her lifelong prayers!
(from Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss)

Oh, that my little ones would be welcome to my heart, my time, my strength, my health, my tenderest cares, and my lifelong prayers!

((and yes, Tabitha, if you are reading this, I STILL have your book from, like, 5 years ago...))

Little Mommy

2010-04-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

Abby is turning into quite the little mommy. I often catch her "mommying" her baby dolls, doing the same things with them that I do with her and Charlotte. She changes their diapers, puts them in their high chair and feeds them, pushes them around in their stroller, rocks them while whispering "shhh baby, it's ok." And just the other day, she started nursing them.
I about died on the spot when she walked in the room, sat down next to me on the couch, and started trying to feed her baby. "I bwest feeding" is what she says. Oh my goodness, too much!! How she makes me laugh!

Easter Weekend

2010-04-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter weekend, spending time with friends and family, and celebrating Christ's resurrection together!

My Mom had these dresses made for the girls- hand smocked!! Aren't they amazing? I love all the detail on them, and that the girls already have a special "keepsake" to pass on the their own children some day. Charlotte's is a little big on her, but she will grow into it this summer.

On Saturday the Weymouth's had an Egg Hunt and a party for the little girls. Abby had a blast looking for eggs.

Here is our attempt at a family pic on Easter morning- very hard to do with a fussy newborn and a crazy toddler who doesn't want to sit still, and wants to see each picture before taking the next one! And, trying to smile at just the right time for the self timer. Oh well, we will have nice pictures taken of us some day...

Sunday afternoon we had a great time getting together with all of Andy's side of the family here in town. The cousins had another easter egg hunt, and they each got little baskets with treats to take home. I can't tell you how much Abby LOVES her cousins (well, technically her second cousins). They are so sweet with her and she really looks up to them. It is so fun for us to watch her loving her family so much. This is one of our biggest hopes for our children- that they will grow up valuing and loving their family. It is such a joy to see that happening even now!

We are so blessed by the many ways in which through Christ we have new life. Think of all that His death and Resurrection accomplished for us! Peace with God, hope for the future, freedom from the bondage of sin and death, meaning and purpose for our suffering... we have so much to be thankful for.

Scrumptious

2010-04-02T12:58:00.000-07:00

Serious cuteness happening here.

I could gobble her up!!

Three Weeks!

2010-04-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

Charlotte is three weeks old today. It feels like the past three weeks have just flown by, and I can't believe that she is almost a month old already. I also can't believe that at this point with Abby, we were on our way to Arlington, Va, for Andy's brain surgery. I look at Charlotte now and can not imagine how we did it with such a small baby. I am so thankful that this go around is much more low-key! Although, having a 2-year-old at the same time has had its share of craziness, stress, and moments of desperation, too. (Side-note: do all moms compare each new pregnancy/newborn to the last, or is it just me??).

Here are some shots of what we have been up to the past three weeks:

Lots and lots of family snuggles!!

Charlotte's first sponge bath at home. How she hated it, until we gave her a paci, of course!!

Charlotte loves to sit in her bouncy chair and look out the window. And, she is trying desperately to find her hands, as you can see in these photos. I fear we might have a thumb sucker when she finally does!!

There is something absolutely IRRESISTABLE about a sleeping baby...

My Mom stayed with us for a week after Charlotte was born. I really have nothing more to say abut this except THANK YOU GOD.

My Mom is the most calming presence. We are so different- I am incredibly task-oriented while she is totally relationally-oriented, I am organized while she can be a little scatter-brained (it's the musician in her!), I am often rushed while she is unhurried, I am very opinionated and can be judgemental, she is one of the most open-minded and loving people I know. She is a constant reminder to me of the things that are truly important- people, not tasks; resting, not rushing; listening, not talking to be heard. I still have so much to learn from her! I am so thankful for where the Lord has brought our relationship over the years, and I am so thankful for her! We all went through Bubba withdrawal when she left.

Although we slowed down a bit when Charlotte was born, Abby seems to have missed that memo.
But I wouldn't have it any other way...

Alexe Weymouth and her girls came to visit when Charlotte was just a week old! How fun to get all of our girls together.

Our two #2's... Charlotte and Madeleine

Lallie is Abby's bestie, and future JMU roomie (we have informed her that she can go to any school in Virginia, but if she goes to JMU we will pay for it... and if she goes to Tech then her GRANDFATHER with pay for it!!)

And few more of Charlotte that I just though were too cute NOT to post.. but then, I am pretty biased...

The last three weeks have been such a blur- it seems that life hasn't slowed down as much as I thought it would (probably due to the 2-y-o!!). We are exhausted and sleep-deprived, but we are enjoying Charlotte so much and are loving our new family of four. She is such a sweet baby, she loves to be held, more so than Abby did, and really only fusses when she is hungry or tired (or wants to be held...). She reminds me so much of Abby but I am already seeing so many differences, both in her appearance and demeanor. We love her so much!
And Abby is doing great! She surprises me every day with how capable she is of being a good helper and a good comforter and companion for Charlotte. A few days ago I noticed that it would bother her when CHarlotte would cry a lot (she would say "NO baby, STOP!!" until I got Charlotte calmed down). So, we have been working on how we care for our sister when she is sad and ways we can help her feel better. Yesterday Charlotte started to fuss in her bouncy chair, and Abby walked up to her, started patting her belly, and said "shh, it's okay baby sister, it's okay, I love you baby sister." I about died on the spot- it melted my heart to see her loving her sister so well, and it was such an encouragement to me to see her respond to what has felt like DAYS of instruction on being kind.
And how my heart needed this encouragement! Because it has been HARD caring for a newborn (who nurses every two hours!!!), and shepherding, instructing and disciplining a toddler at the same time. MAN, no one told me it would be this hard! Okay that's a lie, many people told me it would be hard, but somehow it didn't register until now. This is the hardest thing I have ever done, EVER. I am having to let go of my natural desire to be "in control" like never before. I am having to trust God and depend on Him in a totally new way. I am learning more and more that my deepest need right now is not more sleep, or a girl's night out, or a pedicure (although I would about DIE to have any one of those right now!!). My deepest need right now is to learn how to die to myself. How thankful I am that I know the One who did this perfectly, for my sake, and that His Spirit lives in me and is working in me!

2010-03-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

I am eating this up!!! Can't get enough of her cuteness

And I am eating THEM up... Abby loves her baby sister so much already! What a blessing!!! They melt my heart more every day.

Visitors

2010-03-24T17:17:00.001-07:00

We had so many visitors the weekend after Charlotte was born (a week and a half ago already!! Time is FLYING by!). We are so blessed to have so much family so close by- in fact, right now ALL of our immediate family members live in Virginia! What a blessing!

Andy's grandparents and aunt and uncle came over with Bruce, Trisha and Chris on Saturday morning

This one is a little blurry, but I love it. Last time Chris drove all the way from Chicago to meet Abby- I'm so glad he only had to come from Williamsburg this time!!

My Uncle Jim, who lives in GUAM!!! just happened to be in Virginia Beach for the week for his work. I hadn't seen him in over ten years- is it not such a display of God's providence that Charlotte was born while he was in town? We had a sweet little family reunion once my Mom came in town (he his her younger brother). It will be so fun to see him again this summer when the whole Lentz gang gets together in Minnesota.

My Dad came in on Saturday as well (and brought Settlers with him, of course!!)

I don't know who was more excited to see him- me, or Abby. She LOVES her Papa, especially when he watches Elmo videos with her!!

Dan and Katie came on Sunday for the day.

Always the goofball, how I love him!

How sweet are they?? Abby loves her Aunt and Uncles so much!! I can't wait to watch Charlotte enjoying them as much as she does.

My best friend Cara came on Friday and stayed for the weekend. I could never adequately express how much she means to me and to our family. She is a calming presence, a helping hand (I think she must have washed every single dish we own multiple times while she was here!), a generous giver, and more than a friend, she is my sister. The only thing that got me through her leaving us on Sunday was knowing my Mom would be here for the next week!! I think I would have had a mental breakdown if they had left at the same time!!

And of course, my Mom came on Thursday, packed and ready to stay for a week to help us out. I think she must have read about 1,000 books to Abby while she was here.

We are so thankful for our wonderful family who surrounded us with so much love and help after Charlotte was born!

2010-03-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

It hit me just a minute ago. What today is. March 21st.
A year ago today, we lost our second baby. A year ago today, everything I used to believe about family planning, and bearing children, and loss and grief came crashing down around me. 8 months of trying for number two were lost, along with my hopes of having my children no more than two years apart (because this, I believed, was the BEST way to have children, and what all the best mothers did, right?).
We grieved. We prayed. We healed. My dreams of having more children had not died with that baby, and the thought of waiting any longer than necessary to start trying again was unbearable, so in the midst of the grief, we started praying, hoping, and trying for another one.
And four months later, we found out we were pregnant again. With Charlotte. My sweet, perfect, beautiful baby girl whom I hold in my arms right now, snuggled close and smelling so sweet.
It does not escape my mind the fact that if not for that loss, we would never have had her.
I am so thankful for her. And yet, I am not glad we lost our baby. I know that our baby is where I ultimately want her to be, but it doesn't change the fact that I would rather her be here, with us, now. I want all three of my babies here with me now. It's an interesting place to be- and I'm not sure I can really wrap my mind or my heart around it. What does it mean to be both so sad about something, and yet so thankful for it, in the same moment? I see all the things the Lord has done- in my heart, in our marriage, in our family- in the past year, things that would not be if it had not been for our loss, and I am so grateful for the way He works. For the way He takes the mess of this world and makes it beautiful. For the way He brings life where there was once death. For the way He redeems our sufferings, and gives them meaning and purpose. For the way He works ALL things for good. Every. Single. Thing.
Charlotte will always be a reminder of this for me. The same way that Abby is always a reminder to me about how much He loves me- how He rejoices over me with His love (her name means "Father in Rejoicing"). Charlotte will always be a reminder to me that He knows best. That though "weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."
Which is way "her" passage is Psalm 30. I read this passage when I was about 25 weeks along with Charlotte, and after a long night of worrying that something would be wrong with her (does every mother have those??). It was a sweet reminder that the Lord held her in his hands, and of all the good things He had been doing in the past months. How good He is to us.

Psalm 30
I will exalt you, O LORD,
for you lifted me out of the depths
and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
O LORD my God, I called to you for help
and you healed me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the grave;
you spared me from going down into the pit.
Sing to the LORD, you saints of his;
praise his holy name.
For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may remain for a night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.
When I felt secure, I said,
"I will never be shaken."

O LORD, when you favored me,
you made my mountain stand firm;
but when you hid your face,
I was dismayed.
To you, O LORD, I called;
to the Lord I cried for mercy:
"What gain is there in my destruction,
in my going down into the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it proclaim your faithfulness?

Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me;
O LORD, be my help."
You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.

Charlotte's Birth

2010-03-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

Charlotte's timing could not have been more perfect. My brother Matt had come into town the night before for a few days of his spring break, and on Wednesday his girlfriend Becca came down for the night as well. One of the things I had been concerned about was going into labor in the middle of the night, knowing it was probably going to go pretty quickly, and having to call someone to come stay with Abby. Isn't it just so like our God to provide for us in such a tangible, practicle way by having Charlotte come on the one night that there would be not only one, but two very capable people staying over to watch Abby?

I had been having sporadic contractions all day- none regular but still more painful than Braxton Hicks, so we thought it would be a good idea to take a few last shots of my pregnant belly before she was born. Good thing we did!

Around 10:30 my contractions all of a sudden were 4 minutes apart and about a minute long, so we started timing them (yay for Andy's itouch, just another reason we are crazy about Apple!!), and gathered our things to head to the hospital.

We spent the next hour and a half going back and forth about whether or not it was the real thing- "should we go in? but what if they go away as soon as we get there? what if we have 10 more hours of this- I would rather labor at home as long as possible, but Abby was only four hours so maybe we should go in...."
We finally left for the hospital around 12:15 and got checked into our room at 12:45.

And good thing we went when we did. Charlotte was born just two hours after arriving, at 2:48am!

Just like with Abby, we both fell in love with Charlotte instantly. We were struck by how much she looks like Abby when she was born, even down to the tiny stork bite on her forehead! I'll have to post some side-by-side photos of them.

We got to rest for a few hours before the family started coming in to meet Charlotte. Abby was really excited to meet her, and kept jumping up on the bed to get a better look into the bassinet.

Look at that face! She is so proud!!!

Here Trisha was showing her Charlotte's belly button. Ever since Abby has been very concerned about Charlotte's "boo boo beddy button."

Classic Abby! She was so jazzed up from having so many of her favorite people around!

This is one of my favorites- check out Abby in the background! Andy was trying to capture a tender moment, and Abby thought he was trying to get a picture of her! Haha I love it!!

Nothing like some snuggles with my biggest girl. Who instantly went from looking small and tiny to looking like a gigantic monster to me!! She is constantly on the go, so I have to grab these moments whenever I can.

Trisha, Bruce and Andy's brother Chris came to see us almost right away. How great to have them so close by!!

My Mom came in town later that afternoon, ready to stay for the next week!!

And she brought the yummiest, most beautiful cup cakes I have ever seen!!

Matt and Becca were our lifesavers- they were exhausted, from the excitement of the night before and staying up, waiting for the phonecall announcing her arrival, and then having to get up early when Abby woke up. How special to have had them be part of such a big moment in our lives!

Becca quickly became Abby's new favorite person, as she let Abby try out every single piece of makeup in her bag.

Charlotte's birth was as amazing as Abby's was. I was afraid that no other birth could live up to my experience with Abby, but this one was no less emotional, miraculous, overwhelming, or amazing. It was a totally different experience- Abby was induced, in the middle of the day, lots of friends and family already in town, lots of nurses and my doctor in the room, and medicated. This time we had the excitement of rushing to the hospital in the middle of the night, only a nurse and my midwife in the room with us, and no time for an epidural. It was neat for me to see that no matter how a baby comes into the world, no birth is any more or less amazing & special than another.
And my take on "going natural"?? There is a reason the anesthesiologist gets paid so much for administering an epidural!! All I can say is, "OUCH. FREAKIN OUCH!"

Charlotte Kathryn

2010-03-12T12:40:00.000-08:00

And I was worried it couldn't possibly be as amazing as the first time...

Thursday 3/11 at 2:28am, 7lb 8oz, 20 1/2 inches long.

Falling in love all over again...

Waiting...

2010-03-08T14:32:00.000-08:00

We are now only ONE week away from baby girl's due date. And it's official- we are going to name her Charlotte! We are still deciding on her middle name, but more on that later...
The past three weeks my doctors have consistently told me that she would be coming "soon, and quick," due to how fast Abby's delivery was (4 1/2 hours!!), and how much I have already "progressed." Not helpful. There is still so much unknown, and it has been a really different experience for me to wait to go into labor. With Abby I got to pick the date and the doctor and though I didn't know what to expect with labor, I knew I would at least be able to be fresh and showered and have my bags packed before she arrived. This time around I wake up every morning wondering "will today be the day?" And each night when I climb into bed I think "tonight is the night!!" Yeah, this is how most people have babies, I know. It's just new for me. What makes it even more fun is thinking about what it would be like to go into labor during the day, by myself, with Abby underfoot. During a temper tantrum. And a dirty diaper. See where my mind goes?
Anyways, in the meantime, while we wait, I have been getting everything ready- washing and folding clothes, burp cloths, and blankets, getting her bassinet all set up, making lists... I have also been really enjoying each extra day I have with Abby, trying to spend some extra moments reading together, having tea parties, coloring, singing, or whatever she wants to do- because I know that my attention is going to be divided once Charlotte comes. It will be good for her, but also hard. So I've been getting some extra snuggles in whenever she lets me.

Here are some shots of my 39-week belly that Andy took of me the other day.

And a few from this past weekend, we went to First Landing State Park to walk and enjoy the nice sunshine.

Hopefully our next post will be of our new addition....

In Abby's words, "come on, Sha-wit!! No more cookin!" (she says that Charlotte is "cookin" right now... haha)

Longest post ever!!

2010-03-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

Since soon enough the pages of this blog will be filled with new baby pics, I figured it high time to do a big post on things we have been up to, with lots of photos of Abby for her faithful followers (aka the grandparentals...)
So cozy on up cause it's a long one!!!

The other day the lighting was so good outside and Abby had on this adorable fleece my aunt Carole gave her for Christmas, so I thought I'de try to capture a few good shots of her. I like what came out.

I saw this one and immediately was struck by how old she looks!! She is SUCH a little girl now, and not my "baby" anymore. Although, I still call her my baby from time to time- I'm not quite ready to let go of all her "babyness" yet...

My favorite smile

Abby has been pretty obsessed with "pody tails" lately. She loves me to put her hair into one, but will only leave it in for a little while. If I have my hair up she likes to play with it, and when she sees other girls with pony tails she always points them out. I love that she is starting to take more of an interest in her hair, it's so fun!

This is what greets me every morning- a big smile, Bear Bear, and crazy messy hair. She has the CRAZYEST bed head I have ever seen. This picture doesn't do justice! I have to comb all the knots out every morning which she loves... (not)...

Abby still loves to dance, and her favorite dance partner is Andy. We are all about spontaneous dance parties in this house.

...and air guitar, apparently...

Abby's favorite shoes lately are a pair of black New Balance sneakers that one of my JMU girls gave me at my baby shower for her. They finally fit her, and she loves them!! I have to say they look pretty darn cool.

We have been really into tea parties lately. Uncle Chris gave Abby this awesome wooden tea set for her birthday, and she loves it and asks for it almost every day! We spread a blanket out on her bedroom floor and invite some of her "friends" over for tea. It's so fun to watch her imagination grow so much every day!!

What crazy snow we had last month!!! We didn't get as much as the rest of Virginia, but we did get a little and tried to take Abby out into it...

...but she hated it!!

It may have had something to do with the fact that it was an hour past her naptime and she was exhausted, she was wearing rain boots and so her feet could feel how cold the deep snow was, and it was so bright out and she HATES it when its bright out (she inherited my sensitive eyes!)... oh well there's always next year.

For Valentines Day (I know, forever ago, right?) Abby and I melted crayons down to turn this...

...into these!!!

And though its almost Easter, they are still hanging, and probably will be for quite a while. I think you can stretch out decorations like these longer than Christmas decos, right?....

One of my FAVORITE times of the day is when Andy gets home. It's always the craziest time of day as I am trying to finish making dinner and get it on the table, and Abby is tired and hungry and at the height of her crabby-ness. But he is so great about jumping right in and playing with Abby to keep her occupied and happy until dinner is ready. They have such a good time together and always end up in a tickle fight at some point. She loves it, and I delight in hearing her little giggles and squeals as she plays with her Daddy. It reminds me of all the wrestling matches my brothers and I got into with my Dad.

Last month we had the pleasure of traveling to Hendersonville, NC, to visit our dear friends the Weymouth's. It was an adventure getting there, we had to pull over and stay in a hotel the first night because it was snowing so bad, but once we arrived we had a wonderful weekend of watching our two girls play together, watching the Olympics, catching up, laughing, encouraging one another, and meeting the newest little Weymouth, Madeleine Jayne!

Our girls are only 3 months apart, and it is such a joy to watch them play together. Abby has a bit to learn about sharing, and about not decking your friends in the face (yeah, not so sure how to work on that one, besides being very stern with her when she does it... yikes!). But, she as soon as we left she would not stop asking for her "Yayie" (Lallie).

They got all dressed up in red dresses for church on Valentines Day, and Lallie was gracious enough to share some of her wings with Abby. How cute they look together!!

And last but not least.... I will leave you with a glimpse of some of the silliness that has filled our home as of late!

Abby is such a lively, energetic toddler. She is always doing crazy things and cracking herself up, and cracking ME up! We have such a great time together. On one had she is incredibly exhausting as she takes a lot of instruction, discipline, and shepherding in this age of testing and new-found independence. We have meltdowns every day (yes, both of us!), and it seems like all I have been praying about lately is for the Spirit to grant me more and more patience and grace and gentleness with her. And oh, the whining!! It's about to drive me nutso! But, in the midst of all that she is so incredibly delightful, fun, hilarious, and brings me so much joy. I can't think of anything else I would rather be doing than spending my days with her. It is worth having less money, less time for myself, not being as "successful" in my job as I would like, and the feeling that some days all that gets accomplished is lunch and a few diaper changes. It is so worth all the sacrifices to not miss a single moment of her life that is quickly passing by me. And really, they aren't sacrifices at all- the real sacrifice would be what I would be missing if I wasn't at home with her. Oh how she has changed me in just two years!

2010-02-18T17:35:00.000-08:00

No time for any fun blogging lately, too much to do before baby girl enters the world!
Right now I'm working on a talk for this weekend that I will be giving to college women at JMU for their InterVarsity Women's Conference. I am doing a "breakout session," so not the main talks, thank goodness! It's so fun to be working on a talk like this because I feel that I can really share my heart, and there is less pressure than when I am speaking for a Large Group setting. My talk is about Women in Community- our relationships as God intended them to be- our relationships with each other as sisters in Christ, and our relationships with men as our brothers in Christ. It's almost funny to me that the most common topic I get asked to speak on is relationships- I have been asked to speak on dating, singleness, friendship, marriage, community, and now women in community again! After being asked to speak on dating for about the third time, I remember thinking to myself "oh great I am that speaker now, aren't I? The one who can only talk about how to have a healthy dating relationship but can't speak well about anything deeper like the authority of scripture, or the divinity of Jesus, or the importance and practice of prayer." For a little while I just felt lame. I have so many more things to say than just "if you can't imagine heading towards marriage with this person, you probably shouldn't be dating them..."!! But, then I realized that I was the lame one- because this stuff is so important! It's so important to talk to college students about pursuing healthy friendships and to help them wrestle through God's design for marriage. It's so important to show them that our gender differences are intentional and created by God and they are good. It's so important to help them value the other gender, and even in some cases to repent of hatred towards their own gender, and to learn how to relate as the women God created them to be. So, I don't feel lame, I feel honored, and really excited to share with these women this weekend.
I'll leave you with a quote from John Piper I have been stewing over that I have fallen in love with.

“At the heart of mature femininity is a freeing disposition to affirm, receive, and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a woman’s differing relationships.”

What would it look like if more women actually embodied this?

January Cuteness

2010-01-29T20:24:00.000-08:00

Abby loves to climb in Bruiser's bed and cuddle with him. He takes it so well! I love that she enjoys him so much. She chases him around, wrestles with him, orders him around- "Boo-suh SIT!" and he just takes it all and is so gentle with her. They are best friends!

She has lived in this tent since we set it up after Christmas. It's her little hiding spot, book-reading area, and a place to take her dollies and have tea parties with them. Every kid needs a cool fort!!

The other day the three of us visited the children's museum in Portsmouth. Abby had a BLAST, so we paid the balance to upgrade to a year membership. It will be a great place to bring Abby during the week while its still cold out, especially once the baby gets here and I am going stir crazy!!

THis last one is one of my favorites right now. This is how Abby smiles for the camera :) I love it!!

Abby reads

2010-01-23T17:22:00.000-08:00

Abby LOVES to read, which makes me so very happy! She will seriously spend 45 minutes just sitting and looking through her books, several times a day. She loves for us to read to her before naptime and bedtime, but most of the time when I offer to read to her she says, "no mommy, Abby reads!" And then she does- in her own language, of course! She says the words she knows and then fills in the rest of the story in her own little language. I love it!

Here is a video of her reading her new princess book she got for Christmas.

Adventures in Bread Making

2010-01-23T16:50:00.000-08:00

My friend and bread making QUEEN Sheena would be so proud... I have been baking bread!! Lots and lots of it!

My mom gave me the Joy of Cooking cookbook for Christmas this year. My mom has had her copy for years and some of her best recipes come from it, and I had been asking for it for a while. My brother also gave me the movie "Julie and Julia," (and funny thing, Julia Child sort of disses "Joy of Cooking" in it!!), so I have been really inspired lately to branch out a little in my cooking and try some new things. One thing I have always wanted to get into but never had the guts is bread making. It just seems to hard- everything has to be just right, and there is nothing worse than bad bread!! So, I turned to the bread section of this cookbook and it explains the ins and outs of different kinds of breads so well, I thought that maybe I could give it a whirl.
So far I have made french bread, milk bread (which is absolutely amazing), and cinnamon-raisin bread (a few times).

We have been eating the Cinnamon Raisin bread for breakfast in the mornings

And the milk bread is so yummy with some jam or apple butter.

Can you tell Abby loves it?

Look at that sweet jelly face!!

Our Little Musician

2010-01-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

Abby has enjoyed music since she was just little bitty and would kick her legs when I would play the piano for her. Now it is so fun to watch her "play" and sing along. Enjoy the video!

New shoes

2009-11-30T11:30:00.000-08:00

I just bought these for Abby with some of her birthday money. Are they not the coolest/cutest/sweetest little toddler shoes you have ever seen? I know she's going to love them- she goes crazy over new shoes!

I normally would not have gotten such nice shoes for her, since she grows out of them so fast, but it was her birthday money and isn't that what birthday money is for? To get those things you would love but wouldn't normally buy for yourself? And plus, she got at lot of fun toys for her birthday and is about to get even more for Christmas, and she just grew out of the amazing Robeez sneakers she got from Bruce and Trisha a while ago. So, new shoes it is!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Wise!!

Two!

2009-11-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

Abby turned two a week ago! I know everyone says this will happen, but the last two years have really flown by. It really is true that they grow up so fast. I almost can't remember what it was like before she could walk (or RUN!!), talk, play by herself, brush her teeth, or any of the typical two-year-old things she is doing right now.

I'll post a more in-depth update later, but for now, here are some pictures of her birthday:

My mom came down for a few days to visit with us before Abby's birthday. We had a great time going Christmas shopping, playing, and watching movies. Abby loved curling up next to my mom on her blow-up bed to watch movies.

That is, until the Nor-Easter hit!! We lost power on Thursday morning and didn't get it back until Saturday. Thankfully, Andy's parents live nearby and we spent the rest of the week and weekend with them. We did spend a little time in our house playing by candlelight before packing up and heading out. It was quite an adventure!!

On Saturday we had a party with Andy's family to celebrate Abby turning TWO!!

Abby insisted on wearing her wings from her Halloween costume. She loves all things butterfly, fairy, or princess...

Playing with cousin Anna

She LOVES playing with her second cousins Spencer, Brady and Anna. We are so blessed to be close by to them and to be able to see them so often. It is really fun to watch them play and interact with each other.

I made her a butterfly cake, since butterflies (or, as Abby says, "fuh-byes" are one of her favorite things right now.

We are in for it this Christmas- Abby LOVED opening presents. She would open one, get really excited, and then say "more pees!" She was especially excited because ALL of her presents had to do with princesses. Princess books, princess clothes, princess blocks, princess balloon... we are in for it!

She insisted on putting on her new princess pj's right away, and reading through the princess books she got from grandma and grandpa. Oh goodness!

28 Reasons

2009-10-19T13:13:00.001-07:00

28 Reasons Why I Love My Husband On His 28th Birthday:

1. The first time I met him, he showed me a hat he got from Russia and told me all about the amazing Russian Banya's. I have heard him talk about said hat and the banya's about 1,056 times since then.
2. His laugh
3. His servant's heart
4. His heart for "outsiders" and people on the fringe- in college, when we would go to various IV events, he was never concerned with just catching up with his friends, or with being seen by others. His first steps were towards those who looked "out of place," or lonely, or new. This humbles me.
5. How he loves my family.
6. The look on his face and the tears in his eyes when he saw Abby for the first time. I will never, ever forget it.
7. How 4 1/2 years later and 10 pounds heavier, I still believe without a shadow of a doubt that he thinks I am the most beautiful and desirable woman on the planet.
8. He is slow to speak- he listens well, and shares what he thinks only if it is beneficial and not just to hear himself speak or to air his opinions.
9. He thinks I'm funny
10. He cares deeply about his friends.
11. He went to Young Life camp to meet girls, and met the Lord there instead.
12. He understands his brokenness and His need for Christ daily, hourly.
13. He provides for us well
14. He is a hard worker, and loves to be challenged
15. He loves to work with his hands and create- he has built a beautiful bookshelf, a bench, and an entertainment center for our home. I am so proud of him!
16. He is an amazing father
17. He doesn't get upset or stressed out if the house isn't perfectly picked up for him and dinner on the table just right when he gets home from work. I want to keep a clean home and provide yummy, nutritious meals for him and be a good help to him not because he demands it but because he is so gracious with me and appreciative of the things I do for him.
18. He is so quick to forgive, and doesn't hold a grudge.
19. He doesn't complain when I ask him to change poopy diapers or wash the dishes for me.
20. He reads wayyyyyyy more books to Abby at night than I ever do, prays with her, and sings her to sleep. I listen to it all on the monitor and it melts my heart every time.
21. After months of pestering from me, he finally read the Harry Potter series. I have never seen him read a book so fast. EVER.
22. He makes me think about things in new ways
23. He goes to work at 6:30am every morning so that he can get home earlier, and spend more time with his girls.
24. He will always be a beach boy at heart, and now he also shares my love for the mountains
25. He loves to be outdoors- throwing a frisbee, hiking and camping, surfing, snowboarding...
26. He loves the Lord more than he loves me, and this is why I can trust him and follow him.
27. He puts my needs before his own, and loves me so well
28. He is my best friend

Every year there are more and more reasons why I love you, Andy. I am thankful for your life, and for the man that you are and the man God is molding you into. I am humbled by you, delighted in you, and blessed to have been chosen by God to be your wife.

Happy 28th Birthday!

Little Piggies

2009-09-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

Alright people, call off the dogs. The harassment can stop now. Blogging has resumed. And seriously, how could I have had any time to blog in the last month, with moving, unpacking, and watching an almost two-year-old?

Actually, in all honesty, I LOVE it when people start getting on me to update our blog. Because it means that there are people out there who still read it and check it, and love us. If no one every bugged me about it I would probably start to wonder, "does anyone even care?" So, thanks, and as a sign of my gratitude, here is the first of many updates to come!

LITTLE PIGGIES:
Abby's hair has ben sloooooowly growing. I have trimmed the back a few times to keep her from getting a mullet as I try to get it to grow out. I have visions of Abby with her long hair pulled back with clips, bows, and pony tail holders. Oh the joys of mothering a little girl! But right now, her hair is just caRAzy! And by crazy I mean all over the place. Almost falling in her eyes, shaggy over her ears. And I refuse to give her bangs. REFUSE. If you have ever seen pictures of me from ages 3-13, you understand my almost irrational fear of childhood mullets and huge bangs. Thanks, Mom.
However, lately I have been able to pull her hair back into two little pigtails! UGH how I LOVE them. SO much.

More to come!

(And in all fairness, I have to admit that it wasn't really my Mom's fault I had a mullet and then HUGE bangs until I was 14. It was the trailer, in Ruckersville, called "New York Cuts." Nice)

Chocolate Paci

2009-07-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

Our good friend C.J. sent Abby a chocolate pacifier in the mail the other day. She has been eating little bits of it every day for the past few days. Every time we say, "Abby, do you want some chocolate paci?" she nods her head vigorously and runs towards the fridge where we are keeping it. It's a hit! Good thing, because the last time C.J. tried to put chocolate on her paci, things didn't go so well. She burst into tears and screamed for several minutes. Then for the next week she kept pulling it out of her mouth, forwning, and saying "uh oh." I was beginning to get a little worried- I mean, what child hates getting chocolate on their paci? My fears were settled with the arrival of the chocolate paci. Dan, Matt and Chris, it looks like you've got another contender for Uncle of the Year! Uh oh!

I will let the pictures speak for themselves!

Summer favorites..... (how we love a Blacksburg summer!!)

2009-07-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

This has been a wonderful summer! Here are some things we have been up to lately:

Finally growing longer hair!

Taking after-dinner walks on the Huckleberry Trail

Tasting Honeysuckles for the first time!!!

Looking cute

Enjoying music on the Drillfield

Resting with Bruiser

Loving popsickles

Curling up with "Melmo"

Playing with Playdough

Hiking the Cascades with the Barts'

Playing on the playground

Packing for our move to Norfolk

2009-06-29T11:54:00.001-07:00

I know, I know... it's been forever. A seriously long time. Things are going great- crazy, but great! We are moving in less than a month, trying to find a place to live, enjoying Blacksburg as much as we can in the time we have left, visiting friends and family, enjoying Abby more than ever... and most of all, resting in the goodness of Jesus as He walks with us, teaches us, stretches us, and grows us more every day in dependence on His provision and power.
More to come.. I promise!!!

All must work for good to me

2009-04-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

Storms may howl, and clouds may gather,
All must work for good to me.

All must work for good to me. I have been praying to believe this the past two weeks. Praying to see God's faithfulness in the midst of grief and loss. Praying to see the good in the storm.

I have struggled with whether to write about our miscarriage two weeks ago or not. How do I begin to write about something that is impacting me so deeply? But how do I not write about something that is impacting me so deeply?

A little over two weeks ago I started cramping and bleeding, and, fearing the worst, made an appointment with our ob/gyn to see what was going on. I was 7 weeks along, and we were just getting ready to start telling everyone the news that we were finally expecting our second. I prepared myself for the worst, and was shocked when an ultrasound showed a slow, but steady heartbeat! However, our doctor informed us that there was a chance that we might still miscarry due to the position of the baby. The the following night we lost the baby.

Grieving a miscarriage is like grieving any other death- there's those initial moments of shock where you aren't really sure what to do, then crying and sadness, followed by "ok now its time to send out emails to let people know and cancel appointments and get through life and make dinner and move on," and finally followed by the overwhelming reality of life- that now I have to go on and live my life without them. Life goes on, but they aren't here- it's loss, it's an emptyness.

I have been on a roller coaster the past two weeks, experiencing every emotion more deeply than ever before- moments of deep, deep sadness; moments of frustration and anger and misunderstanding; moments of joy and happiness and peace. Grief is a perplexing process. It is unpredictable. It is paradoxical- I am normal, yet not. I am fine, yet not. I want to be pregnant again soon, yet I know I will still be grieving in some way. I know and believe all the right things- my little one is with the Lord, the safest place she could be; it wasn't my fault; God is good and trustworthy and faithful; He loves me and grieves with me- yet, I still hurt. I struggle to see the good in this storm, but I believe His promises are true.

A few days ago I was wrestling with anger. I was so, so angry that God would have me wait seven months to get pregnant just to take my baby away. That He would allow me to see a heartbeat, to hope, and then allow her to die. That He wouldn't perform a miracle- couldn't he see that sparing her life could bring Him more glory?! What good can ever come of a death? Surely I know best! I wrestled and wrestled, and cried out to God for answers, and wrote, and cried.
And I thought about something that I tell my students- that the God we believe and trust is not distant or removed from our pain- that He isn't just "there for us," guiding us, but that he actualy enters in to our pain with us. That he deeply identifies with our grief and suffering.

Do I really believe this? In my moment of crisis, do I believe that God cares deeply about my suffering?
And then I was reminded that my God lost a child, too. That he was separated from His Son. He watched his son suffer and be put to death. He allowed it. And He did it because he loved me. He allowed his only son to endure what I should have endured so that I could know Him. He took what men intended for evil and made it good. I can't imagine what it must have been like when Jesus rose from the dead, and then finally went back to be with the Father. What a sweet reunion that must have been.

In the midst of grief, I have a deep sense that God is with me- not just directing me, guiding me, reminding me that it will all be ok- but with me. Stepping into this mess. Taking it on himself. Grieving with me. Carrying me. Singing over me. Loving me and blessing me.

I want to see the good that He is working for me through this storm.

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure,
Come disaster, scorn and pain
In Thy service, pain is pleasure,
With Thy favor, loss is gain
I have called Thee Abba Father,
I have stayed my heart on Thee
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather;
All must work for good to me.

crazy blogger!

2009-02-25T11:13:00.000-08:00

What is with blogger? Whenever I comment on other friend's blogs, it asks me to type in a varification code by copying whatever lettters I see into a box. Not a big deal. Except, the last few "codes" I have typed in have been:

bootay

fartjam

butjam

Seriously? I bet whoever makes these up just gets a kick out of thinking of a bunch of people having to type in "butjam."

Valentines Day

2009-02-18T06:54:00.000-08:00

I absolutely LOVE Valentine's Day. I have my mom to thank for that. My mom made Valentines Day magical. Every year, the week before Valentine's Day, each person in our family got a gift bag attached to their door. She would cut out a stack of construction paper cut-out hearts, and we would spend the week filling each other's bags with treats, homemade cards, and the paper hearts on which we would write down things we loved about each other. Then, on Valentines Day, she cooked a special dinner with a yummy dessert (chocolate, of course!!), and we would open our Valentine Bags. It was such a sweet time reading all the things that were written about us. "I love it when you help me around the house." "You run very fast." "You play the piano so well!" "You are kind to others and are fun to be around." These are things that should be said all year round, of corse, but there was something so special about being showered with love and appreciation on that particular day. Every once in a while, while sorting through a box of things I have saved, I come across one of those paper hearts, and it makes me smile, and feel very loved still.

This year some friends of ours threw a "kids only" V-day party that Abby went to from 3-8. That's right, 5 hours- FIVE- of completely free babysitting so that we can go out and have a nice adult date, and Abby can play with all her best friends! It was the best Valentines Day EVER. We had a special breakfast in the morning, spent some time playing on the drill field in the afternoon, and then had a great evening of Italian food and sugar cookies! It was a blast!

Major Sadness...

2009-02-11T19:02:00.000-08:00

Our camera is failing.....

I thought I just had digital slr camera lust, but alas, our trusty little point & shoot is on it's way out... Hardly any of the pictures we take lately are in focus, especially ones taken indoors, and there is a black blurry bar on one edge of the pictures it takes.
It may just need to be serviced, so I am going to take it into a camera shop to get looked at. Let's hope they can fix it- I feel like I am missing so much of Abby without a working camera on hand!

Abby has been particularly adorable lately. Will there ever come a day when my heart doesn't melt just thinking about her? I hope not. Even now, as I picture her curled up with her bear in her crib, I want to just run downstairs, scoop her out of bed, kiss her sweet neck and smell her- I love her smell!

Anyways, today after lunch Andy took Bruiser outside, and Abby ran after him and stood at the back door watching him. She then pressed her mouth against the glass and started blowing on it. Andy started cracking up, saying 'do you SEE this? Oh my goodness, Abby. Jenny you have to see this!" I love how he delights in her. Joy, delight.

She has started bringing books to me, holding them up and looking at me with big eyes that say, "this one, please!" Then she will crawl into my lap and sit patiently as we read through the book. SHe'll do this for a few books before she's off to the next thing. THis afternoon I think we read about 15 books, one after another! These are moments I cherish. Joy, delight.

She started saying "mamma" intentionally last week. When she's upset and she wants to be held, "maaaaaamaaaaa!" When she is tired and cranky, "mamaaaa!" When she is playing, having fun, cuddly, coming to me for a hug (which, to my delight, she does a TON!), "MAma!!" And most recently, when she wakes up happy from a nap or in the morning, "mama! mama! mama!" Melted heart, joy, delight.

A few other things she's been doing lately:
-Walking up and down the street with me on these nice, sunny days! She loves being outside!
-Climbing into Bruiser's bed and then cracking up
-On that note, getting a kick out of everything she does- really, she cracks herself up! She does things, and then throws her head back and laughs at herself!!
-Discovering her belly button, and everyone elses. This also cracks her up.
-Hiding in corners to poop. No joke, she did this twice today. And laughed both times.
-Dancing! When the music starts, look out! This girl has some moves.

Joy, delight!

A "Toddler" She Is!!

2009-02-02T19:19:00.000-08:00

To Mom and Dad: proof that Abby walks!

ps make sure you catch her at the end pausing, loosing her balance, and falling on her bum, and then starting to cry before I turn the camera off! She does this EVERY time she lands on her bottom- I think more out of disappointment than anything! But I love it!

hope!

2009-01-29T11:24:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Jenny Benson and I a LOST addict.
But I have found the cure.
Thank you, perspective!

hope
(click "hope" for link)

2009-01-29T07:01:00.000-08:00

This morning Abby cuddled up in my lap again, and we watched some old videos from when she was a little bittie. I ran across this one, which I think is my all-time favorite Abby video so far. Its from last fall, when she was about 10 months old.
Sorry for the poor video quality, this is from our point and shoot. At some point I will figure out how to load video from our video camera onto here, but until then... enjoy!

Juicy Buts

2009-01-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

I was checking out my "for your reading pleasure" links on the right side of this blog, and when I clicked on "Juicy Bits," it didn't work! And then I looked up at the web address and realized I must have entered it wrong as I was loading it, because it said "www.juicyBUTS.typepad.com." OOPS! Good thing that really isn't a website- that could have been major sketch!

Anyways, enjoy the CORRECT Juicy Bits website if you ever get the time. Her projects are so inspirational. A bit of a prefectionist, and way too detailed in all her sewing than I will EVER have time for, but still totally inspirational.

Moments like these

2009-01-28T06:13:00.000-08:00

This morning, bitter cold as it is, is peaceful and quiet so I set Abby up on the kitchen floor with a pile of books and some blocks. I sit at our kitchen table with my laptop, notepad, and a mug of Greenberry's coffee (loveLOVE this stuff...), taking advantage of the quiet to get some work done on my talk for friday. Abby pulls out a book and wanders over to me, lifts up her arms to me and says "oooh oooh," her version of "up, please!" I pull her into my lap and she snuggles down as I flip the pages of her book, pointing out colors and doggies and flowers to her. At one point, she looks up at me and gives me the sweetest smile I almost melt into the floor.

Moments like these nothing else matters. Moments like these I want to bottle up and keep safe forever!

A Blacksburg January...

2009-01-27T08:39:00.000-08:00

...Means finding as many fun things to do INdoors to keep our sanity! And knowing that we still have all of February and March to get through before spring even begins to show up... Cold, windy, wet....

This past weekend we gathered with a bunch of our friends and had a pizza night! The kids all had a great time playing with each other- chasing each other around and tiring each other out (YES!!). Our hubbies also enjoyed hanging out- something they rarely get to do with their work and school schedules. I love these sweet friends we have been so blessed to get to know the past year and a half.

Garrett and Sheena have the best pizza making equipment. Must get one of these!

These women have meant so much to me since moving to Blacksburg. I left behind a group of really close girlfriends in Harrisonburg, and when we first moved here I wondered if I would ever have friendships like those again. The Lord really provided for me beyond what I ever imagined!! They have been such a provision of the Lord's, and a reminder that he really does go before us every new place we go!
Me, Danielle, Julie, and Sheena

This is Abby's new face. I call it her "how dare you" look. If you bump her, take something away from her, or she falls down, she looks at you like this as if you have done something horribly wrong to her.

All our kiddos chowing down

Andy got chased around by the kids, and I'm not sure who enjoyed it more-him, or the kids! But, it melted my heart to see how much he enjoyed playing with them. He is such a good Daddy and will be so good with more- good thing, since we want a big(ish) family!

What else we've been up to lately:

My parents came down for a Basketball game a few weeks ago, and Abby got to enjoy some piano time with my Mom.

Abby got a new tote bag for Christmas, and has been enjoying carrying it around the house

Uncle Andy came to visit and let Abby play with his Blackberry. Abby can't wait to see her bff Lallie Beth next month!

Some days, all you need is a pink cammo vest to get you through the day...

I wanted to show you how much Abby has changed in the last year with these last two pictures.

A Taste of Things to Come...

2009-01-24T19:42:00.000-08:00

I'm back!! Life is back in motion, and there is time to blog again! So stay tuned for updates and pictures!!

2008-12-17T21:08:00.001-08:00

What we have been up to lately:

Loving "Buh Buh"

Watching for Daddy to come home

Getting stuck in the strangest places, while exploring EVERYTHING!!

Loving reading more and more

Pooping through too many outfits while running errands, and having to resort to wearing mommy's sweatshirt!

Helping mommy sell her Handbags, at the showcase

Pulling every single stuffed animal out of the basket, playing with them for a few moments, and then moving on to the bookshelf

Loving Mac & Cheese- with Butternut Squash hidden in the sauce!

Pulling every magnet off the fridge

Getting taller and taller!!! So much so that Mommy has to start moving things uuuuup and out of my reach!

Hiking with Daddy, Kevin and Uncle C.J.

Making our own Sushi!

Swinging!

A month!

2008-12-03T17:25:00.001-08:00

Wow has a whole month really gone by since Halloween? It seems like yesterday, and 5 years ago, at the same time! For those of you who talk to us on a regular basis, you have probably heard us say "we are so busy!" about a thousand times in the past year. And for some reason, this past month has been, NO JOKE, the busiest and craziest month so far.
THere's just something about having a one-year-old, working 20+hours/week, being in grad school, working 20 hours/week, having three birthdays to celebrate and a holiday with the families..... whew! It has all been awesome, but there has just been NO time for posting!

What I've been up to lately:
-Raising up and training a new leadership team for IV at VT, while transitioning the old team out of their positions
-working on a talk that I am giving this friday!
-sewing handbags and purses for a show on campus to make some extra moolah
-chasing Abby around the house... she crawls so stikin fast now!
-raising support
-helping a new team of students plan campus-wide justice events
-cheering Andy on as he finishes out a hard semester

What I would like to be doing:
-baking!
-sewing some bags for myself! And some Christmas presents too, I guess :)
-playing with Abby all day!
-Christmas cookies!
-Christmas crafts!
-Christmas decorations!
-watching movies with Andy!
-Soaking in a bath for 5 hours with a good book, soothing music, and a BIG glass of wine!

Ahhhhh..... I can not wait for this semester to be over!!

**disclaimer... if any of my students are reading this- I love you all, very very much. You keep me cool. And fashionable. Or at least, from becoming frumpy (so far).**

Going Batty!

2008-11-05T07:15:00.000-08:00

For Abby's first Halloween, she went as a.....

BAT!!!

I mean, what else, really? A princess? no. A monster? maybe. A nocturnal, hangs up-side-down, blind, rodent-creature? YES!!

And though I am biased, I think she was the cutest bat EVER.

Contemplative Bat

Bat Attack!

With her buddy Jaden. Err, Tiger.

Contrary to popular belief, bats do not eat small animals. In fact, they love little pint-sized doggies the best!

Apples!

2008-10-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was fall break, which meant we had friday off!!!

So, we decided to celebrate fall break by doing a bunch of "fall things," like...

apple picking!!!

Wedding Part 2

2008-10-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

Finally the rest of the wedding photos! (Sorry family, it's been an extra busy semester!)

Look at that big smile! And that big suitcase! There's a guy ready to be married and on his honeymoon!

Meredith and her sister Melissa were AWESOME and babysat Abby and our God-daughter, Kelly for us during the ceremony. THANKS girls!!

Waiting to be announced at the reception

First dance- he gazed into her eyes the entire time. I can't tell you how it warms my heart to see my baby brother so in love, and with such a great girl!

Father/daughter dance. Mr.Whitlow is so great- having lived in a house with 6 (SIX!!) women for the last 20 years, he has the sweetest heart and a GREAT sense of humor. He even made a special trip to the store to buy a bottle and some formula for Abby for me. I think everyone was tearing up during their dance, knowing how special their relationship is!

Mother/son dance

Would you expect anything less??

We were all holding out breath, waiting to see if Dan would smash the cake in Katie's face. You see, the old, pre-married, single Dan DEFINATELY would have. But something happened to Dan the MINUTE Katie started to walk down the aisle. It's like he grew up in a minute! He ever-so-sweetly and delicately placed a small piece of cake in her mouth, no smashage at all. It was amazing.

Robin's Maid of Honor toast. I laughed so hard my abs hurt! (And boy did they need the work-out!)

Dad's Best Man toast

Katie's sister Lauren caught the bouquet!

Breakin' it down: (it just so happened that the Lentz's, Berlin's, Barnetts, AND the Hokie's in the house ALL love to dance... never a dull moment!)

Our god-daughter, Kelly- she's so cute!!!

Mom and Katie's mom Randi. LOVE IT!

Even Dan joined in on the Macarena!

Look how happy they are!!!

My sweet cousins Hannah, Kathryn, Bekah, and Sarah Berlin. They started dancing before everyone else, and didn't stop until they had to leave. The are my inspiration.

Poor Abby was SOO tired, but she still loves her Uncle Dan!

The old Tinkers Cove Road crew, minus Aaron and Charles. These people have literally known me my whole life. I have some great memories from those days when we used to live on Tinkers Cove!

Lentz family (my mom's side) portrait

And the true Lentz family. How I love them!

The Berlin's!!

My cousin Laura and I, who is like a sister to me!

Get these kids outta here!!

My best friend Cara, my hero... she took care of Abby a TON (like, practically the WHOLE TIME!) at the reception so I could enjoy being a bridesmaid. She walked with her when she was fussy, took her away from the crowds when she got overwhelmed, and loved on her as only a good auntie can. THANK YOU my life saver!!

What I Really Hope

2008-10-06T05:06:00.001-07:00

What I Really Hope

Posted using ShareThis

Written by Rocks in my Dryer:
A mother's hopes for her children are never far from her.

I've been thinking much these last couple of weeks, as the sky seems to be doing a bit of falling. I think of how higher gas and grocery prices will affect my family, of course, but I think of other things, too. I look at the failure we're seeing, on such a grand scale, and it reminds me of something much deeper. Cheaper groceries aren't the only thing I'm wishing for, where my kids are concerned:

I hope they learn that greed is not, in fact, good. That it messes with the heads of big-time CEOs all the way down to first-time homeowners, and it clouds judgment, often spectacularly so.

I hope that they pay attention in math class and learn that, whether you're a government or a regular Joe, if you spend more than you make, it never ends well.

I hope they learn that a happy family is a million times more precious than a big house.

I hope they learn that when times are good, your circumstances don't have to enslave you or define you. And that when times are bad, your circumstances don't have to enslave you or define you.

I hope they remember that America's version of "cutting back" is very different from that of the developing world.

I hope they learn that contentment is not something that accidentally happens to you, it is something you actively decide upon. And you lay hold of it, re-deciding every day that enough is actually plenty.

I hope they learn that, at the end of the day, our truest Hope will never be found in our bank accounts or our government. Insitutions sometimes fall. He doesn't.

one day...

2008-10-02T08:19:00.001-07:00

This is what I want my pantry to look like some day:

There must be over 200 cans in there! Can you image, being able to feed your family through the fall, winter, and spring, produce that you harvested and canned from your own backyard throughout the summer??

This was my dream at the beginning of the summer when we did our first garden. We had great results- lots of green beans, zucchini and squash, heirloom tomatoes... but, alas, not enough to can. I am totally proud that our first efforts went well enough for us to go a few months without buying veggies from the store, but I still wish that we had gotten enough to can. I had visions of hommade spagetti sauce, green beans, all through winter.... oh well, there's always next year.
Except, we'll be moving.
So, the year after that!

Dan & Katie's wedding: Part 1

2008-09-25T12:16:00.001-07:00

This is part ONE of the LONG awaited post on Dan and Katie's wedding. (Sorry it took so long!)

After 5 years of dating and one year of engagement, Katie Whitlow FINALLY became Katie Berlin, an official member of our family, and my sister! Their wedding was, hands down, our favorite wedding EVER, of ALL TIME, after our own. My uncle gave a homily that spoke perfectly about them individually and as a couple, and of their dedication to pursuing Christ together. There was not a dry eye in the house. I can not tell you of the joy I felt watching my baby brother finally see his biggest dream realized. He had been waiting to marry Katie for a long time, and has only had eyes for her since 7th grade. SEVENTH GRADE!!. This day was truly their "at last!"

The week before the wedding, my family on my mom's side (the Lentz's) all flew in and staying at my parents house in Charlottesville.

Pretty typical, congregating in the kitchen over ice cream

Swimming in the pool!!

A new family tradition, started at my cousin Brian's wedding: Mohito's!! Peaches were in season so we had peach mohitos.

What's a Lentz Family reunion without 1,000 games of Settler's? Pretty much every night people stayed up until 1 or even 2am playing this game. Crazy.

My cousin Brian (or B-ren) doted on Abby. He's going to be a good daddy!

Another Lentz family tradition: Bowling! This family can find a bowling alley anywhere. Sometimes shady, but always fun.

Groom

Bride

Me & my Aunt Carole. Do we look alike? She's my mom's sister :)

The guys had a good time trying on their tuxes- there was a ping-pong table in the store! They must know guys well...

After their tuxes were al squared away, the guys went tubing down the James River.

Nothing like floating down the river with a cold brew in your hand!

My sweet cousin Sean

My brothers with Aaron Billings- one of Dan's groomsmen, and one of our childhood buddies from Tinkers Cove!!

Katie wasn't too pleased with Dan's sunburn... ouch

THe guys got sunburns, and the girls got pampered.... pedicures and manicures!!!

Abby had a good time out with the girls, although she didn't get her nails done this time.... maybe in a few years (I can't wait!)

Rehearsal:

We all started crying the minute it all started. We were trying to get it all out before the real thing. Didn't work.

The Rehearsal Dinner at the Ivy Inn...

The Berlin's

The Lentz's

My cousin Bekah met Abby for the first time!

My awesome parents, Jim and Kathy.

Katie's parents, Randy and Randi. My family LOVES Katie's family, her parents especially. I consider myself officially an adopted daughter. Not like they need any more daughters- they have 5! But they are SO fun and I'm so glad that we will get to see them from time to time!

My grandparents, JD and Nancy Berlin

My Grandma Betty and Katie's Grandmother.

Poor Katie was sick all day Friday, so she just had chicken noodle soup for dinner. Thankfully she was feeling fine the next morning, except for nerves.

After the rehearsal dinner, the guys went to the Tea Bazaar on the downtown mall. These three guys reinacted a photo that was taken the night before Andys and my wedding.

I'll post the pics of the ceremony soon!!