elise's first birthday!

there aren't words to describe the past year with this little gift. she has amazed us and brought us such joy. there just aren't words. i am continually amazed at what a beautiful, funny, interactive, sweet, little girl the Lord has blessed us with. here she is in her party dress ready to celebrate her very first birthday!


aunt karen holding brooke

elise getting help from the cousins with present opening

uncle mike reading to her--uncle mike was such a huge help on this night. after dinner and cake, he was in the kitchen with aunt karen, cleaning up for i can't even tell you how long. the two of them gave us such in a gift in cleaning up. thank you both!!

the crew watching her open presents

i had been so convinced that she would demolish her cake (based on her love for eating)...yet she shocked me! she just sat and looked at it, not knowing what to do. i'm sure the crowd of ancitipating faces didn't help in the stage fright. it finally took me wiping her hand in the icing, for her to start at it!

here's aunt jill with brookie

the cousins posing

the entire time elise was staring at her cake, not sure what to do, jonas was itching to get over there as if to say, "i know what to do-let me help!" as you can see, he decided to "help" her as soon as we got him close enough! thanks jonas! i love this picture!

there are plenty more pictures that i hope to upload soon...but i have to just say once again, how grateful i am for this amazing little girl. before my very eyes, she's changed from our little baby to our little girl. as cliche as it sounds, time does fly...and by the time you realize it, you can't do anything about it! and to think, another little one is on the way. it's amazing to think we'll go through all these "firsts" again. Lord, help me to enjoy and savor each moment.

christmas

on christmas eve, we had dinner with mimi, grampy and poppop. here's lisey with her daddy and her pretty christmas dress. after dinner, we went to church for the christmas eve service and she did really well considering it was past her bed time!

elise and mama

on christmas morning, we had classic eggs benedict and fruit salad. mimi, grampy, aunt mary, uncle mike and poppop joined us. here's elise with her great-grandfather!

after a while, she got the whole unwrapping concept

family photo

december happenings

elise just woke up from her nap so this will have to be short. but here's justin getting our tree up. he was very creative in how he got it to stand straight this year!

lisey helping with the lights :)

lisey unloading her dirty clothes bin. she's in that "take-everything-out-of-where-it's-supposed-to-be" phase. and she even did it naked to top it off! so stinkin cute!

"when's daddy coming home?"

the new baby!

if you haven't heard, we are expecting baby #2 and here he/she is! no, we are not twenty weeks already, which would explain why we have an ultrasound picture already. actually, there was a discrepancy with how far along the baby was, which explains why we had one. before our first appointment last week, i thought i was about 7 1/2 weeks along. but when we went for our visit and the nurse did an ultrasound, we didn't see the peanut shape with a heartbeat that we were expecting. instead we saw a head, a body, arms, hands, fingers...woah! so they scheduled us for a real ultrasound today to determine how far along the baby really is and a more accurate due date. so instead of being due on the fourth of july, we are due on june 9th! that's right, the baloches are expecting our second and we are so excited! elise will have a little brother or sister only 17 months younger than her! and for those of you wondering...as of now, we're planning to find out the gender this time (that should be around january or so). praise God for another little life!

better late than never

here's our li'l punkin on halloween. these are from our first outing of that day at mimi and grampy's house. getting her costume on was funny in itself. she did so well though! and she looked so darn cute! more pics to come from trick-or-treating with oma and papa and the cousins.

she's standing!

lisey is pulling herself up on everything lately. she's also crawling quite well. i'm working on getting some video of that to post too. but all in all, she's tough to keep up with these days. she's pulled herself up on me as i type this...she likes looking at pictures of herself :) we're off to read some books. happy rainy saturday!

reunion

a week or so ago, i went to my church youth group reunion. as you can see, we had a nice turn out...and as my mom says, "who God wanted to be there, was there." it was such a great time of encouragement and refreshing for everyone, it seemed.

justin and elise had a ton of daddy-daughter time, which they both loved.

we had a campfire the first night there.

here's our family with PT and his family. i cannot explain in words how much these folks mean to me. he's is like a dad to me in so many ways...and he and Barb ingrafted me into their family pretty much. i am so grateful for the two of them, their examples of faith and walking with the Lord, and how they loved all of us in high school, and how they love us now.



this is a spiritual heritage picture for elise to keep and look back on someday. karen is on the far left and she is the one who invited me to youth camp when i was 14. next to her is mrs. carver, who shared the gospel with me for the first time...and the Lord used the two of them to lead me to Himself. elise...this is part of your heritage, my dear.

october sped by...

we have been busy this month, so it seems. two major events stand out, amidst visits with mimi and grampy, oma and papa, and friends...aunt laura and cousin nora came to visit. i'll post those pics once i get them from mom's fantastic camera! and we had our high school church youth group reunion this past weekend. that was such a refreshing and encouraging time. i'll post more about that when i get the pics from karen tomorrow! but, just wanted to let everyone know we are alive and well. lisey is 10 months already and we can hardly believe it! she's crawling now...commando most of the time, but now graduating to the hands and knees crawl as well. she's still itching to walk and loves to hold your hands and stroll around as long as your back can handle it! here's our li'l punkin posing for me. i just can't get enough of her smile! and below is her tired pose :) guess it has been an exhausting month!

snuggly morning

this morning was so enjoyable i just had to share. i had made it a goal to get up at 6 this morning, before elise, so that i could spend some time with the Lord in the Word. when justin left for work at 6 and said goodbye to me, i thought, "i'm so going back to sleep..." but as i lay there, i became more and more awake and ended up getting up (thank you God). i had some good time reading, praying and journaling, and then sure enough around 6:50, elise woke up.

what i didn't realize is how much it would change our morning because i had gotten up before her and already had some quiet time. it changed me! usually, when we get up, i sit her down to play with toys while i get a cup of tea or quick clean up the kitchen or grab something to eat. in return, she usually ends up whining for me, and i end up feeling unproductive, unsuccessful...call it what you like. can anyone else out there relate?

but not this morning! i had already made my tea and eaten most of my breakfast...so that when she got up, we just sat and played together. and it was just amazing to me...every few minutes or so, she would turn around, reach up, grab on, and just snuggle me. we snuggled so much this morning. i haven't held her that much, that close, for that long in a while! what a blessing! thank You, Lord, that justin works so hard, so that i could be home with her to enjoy moments like these.

i don't know that every morning will be like this one, but as i held her, i was so thankful.

elise's baby dedication

this sunday, we dedicated elise to the Lord. more than anything, it was a parent dedication. it was us expressing that we desire to raise elise to know the Lord and follow His ways. and since it was done publicly, it was a call to our friends and family to hold us accountable as well as a charge to us, to seek counsel and advice from those we love and who love us so dearly, along the road of parenthood. after the service, everyone came over for lunch. enjoy the pictures!

nine month reflections

(Side note: this picture as well as the two other really good ones in this post were taken by my amazing sister. So if you ever need a good photographer, you know where to go. This is Lisey holding Mary's hand.)

elise is nine months old today. wow. a friend asked me today, "what do you think of when you think of nine months?" my responses at first were brief..."she's almost a year"..."wow, time has flown"...but as i think more on this, it has the potential to really blow my mind.



in nine months, she's learned to sit, smile, hug, laugh, sneeze and laugh at herself afterwards, eat solids, attempt to feed herself with a spoon, feed herself with her fingers (which she's just starting to really enjoy lately)...she went right to the cup and skipped the bottle completely (which i was thankful for)...

she can roll over, she can scoot backwards and is making more successful forward crawling attempts each day...

she loves to stand and see how long she can balance and she loves to hold our hands and walk across the room...she's even getting so bold as to let go of our hand every now and then (no fear!)...

with her papa, she'll stand against the side of the couch while he encourages her to take a step towards him...she hasn't done it yet, but i'll let you know when she does!...



she talks and babbles...sometimes i'm convinced she's singing with me...she likes to bang the guitar when i let her hold it, and while i'm playing, she'll grab my strumming hand or the strings, which can really alter the sound, but it's so fun to watch her mind try to figure it all out...

she cracks a huge smile when either of us brush our teeth, she takes baths in the kitchen sink because our tub is out of commission for a while (but she doesn't seem to mind one bit!)...



she recognizes the sound of josie's paws coming into the room and smiles at her every morning...she even grabs for her ears now and josie is patient as always, while elise learns "gentle with josie"



she loves, loves, loves being outside, especially when there's a wind blowing and birds flying around..."tweet tweets" as she and her daddy call them, and they love to bird watch together on the deck...



she seems to understand some things that i say now, like "look at mommy" and "diaper"...and even some of the sign language we're attempting to teach her...



she's amazing me daily, and just today i was driving and glanced at her in the rear view mirror and almost cried..."she's mine" i thought..."we have her for the rest of her life"..."she's beautiful"...



nine months...so short in the scheme of a lifetime...but in light of the fact that nine months ago, i was merely walking around with a huge belly...nine months is her lifetime as of now, and it's been wonderful so far!

pictures on my camera

in an effort to catch up on the blog, i figured i'd just share some pictures that were on my memory card from the last couple weeks. here we are during our day trip to delaware.

our little bubby - she loves being outside on the deck...

and she loves it even more when her daddy plays guitar for her

thanks to vanessa for the tip on rice cakes. elise loves them!

and here's our little book bug just this morning. no, she's not crawling yet, but working o' so hard to figure it out. she loves this book with the dog pictures in it and actually giggles at some of the pages. i love how dainty her fingers look as she "turns" the pages. after checking this book out, we practiced our "ready, set, go" game where i hold her hips while she stands and then let go to see how long she can stand on her own. she gets so proud of herself. and today after she stood for her longest time yet, she fell into my arms, i cheered "yaaaaah!" and she just hugged me and held on, while i rocked her and kept cheering. it was one of those wonderful moments you want to tuck away and remember exactly how sweet it felt.