2009 Recap

I am taking this idea from my dear friend Alicia, who also posted about 2009...

January- I was entering into my 3rd trimester and was feeling great! I was starting to feel the load of being pregnant, but again, I felt great. My Mom had surgery, and that put allot on Jon and I to help with the kids getting to school and helping my mom in any way possible.

February- I was staring to feel that I was swelling more than I should, and with the absence of my OBGYN at every appointment I had that far, I found it time to switch to another OBGYN. I found Dr. Moola, and LOVED her!

March- The beginning of March is Jon's birthday, so we had fun celebrating that followed by a hospital visit. March 9th, I had a normal appointment that landed me in the hospital for high blood pressure, for 3 days. I was 34weeks. After my release, I was on bed rest, and in and out of the hospital for extremely high blood pressure and a strange, painful rash on my entire body. On March 30th, I went to my appointment confident they would induce me, and they did! I gave birth to Adah Jean Lee March 31st at 11:20 am. She weighed 4lbs 14oz, and beautiful beyond belief.

April- I was released from the hospital April 2end, and we were so thankful to be able to take our daughter to her new home! The 15th was my birthday, and we played it easy for the rest of the month due to my blood pressure still being very high.

May- Not much happened in May.

June- I was finally feeling "normal" and my blood pressure was finally settling down.

July- We did allot of work we had been wanting to do around the house that included our bathroom.

August- This was a tough month. It ended in a way that none of my family was not prepared for.

September- Was allot of what the end of August was. My family really came together to support my brother.

October- Jon and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. It was so sweet to look back at the last 4 years and see all that God has done for us.

November- My family celebrated a difficult Thanksgiving with a family member missing from our Thanksgiving table.

December- We celebrated a casual Christmas as a family. We have been enjoying time off, and are looking forward to what 2009 will hold!

Bring on 2010!!!

Adah's First Christmas Morning!!!

Here are some pictures of Adah's first Christmas. All the pictures of Adah are good, but lets face it, nobody looks good Christmas morning. =)

Adah basking in her new toys

Little do they know that the tea dress up party is next

Adah fell asleep in grandma's arm at the end of the day!

Adah's Christmas Pictures

Before we left for church Christmas eve, I took some pictures of Adah in her Christmas dress.

Family Tradition

This Christmas season has been so much fun with our Adah! Getting to see her reaction to things for the first time is just awesome! Jon and I both come from families with lot of tradition, so we are starting this year with traditions of our own, and mixing them with some familiar ones too!

Like opening up her clean freshly washed PJ's on Christmas eve, and going to Christmas eve service with our families. Something I grew up doing.

We started a few new ones too! We kicked it off with our 1st annual Lee Christmas dinner party with some close friends (pictures to come). It was so cool to see our friends who we have known for years starting their families like us! Seeing the Rancho Cucamonga lights was a new thing this year that will turn into a tradition.

One tradition we haven't done since I was little was going to Logan's Candy Cane demonstration. It is amazing! First of all, they are amazing gourmet candy canes that will blow any candy canes out of the water. Second, the demo starts with Jerry (the owner) with a big slab of hot peppermint candy that he forms into candy canes. They you get to a piece of warm candy cane. I promise you will never be able to eat a candy cane without thinking about Logan's candy canes.

They will be doing the demo's until the 23rd. The times are 5:30pm, 7pm, and 8:30pm. We are going tomorrow and I am so excited to see the demo and take Adah as we start this new family tradition.

You can find the directions here.

The beginning of the demo

Jerry and my Dad grew up together, so this is a familiar face

Forming the candy cane

The candy ribbon is really good too!

If you can, you should hop on over to the Logan's candy in Ontario, it is worth the drive!

Here is an article on Logan's.

So Fresh, So Clean

I love the smell of a freshly bathed baby, don't you? The irresistible smell of Johnson's baby lotion, (or whatever you prefer) the clean clothes, and the (not so much for my kid) freshly combed hair. Bath time is a magical thing! I absolutely love it!

The idea of giving Adah a bath is not my most favorite thing because of the process, but when she is in the bath, it is totally worth it. She LOVES baths!! I love watching her play, and talk to herself and splash around. She has so much fun!

One of the things people say about babies is that their so messy. I have always wondered why people say that. Aside from the occasional accidents, Adah has always been a pretty clean baby. Even her car seat is still in really good condition, and I have never cleaned it. that is all changing.

Because of Adah getting so mobile, I am noticing how dirty she is getting so fast. When she was really little, I could go two days, without giving her a bath. But now, I have given her a bath everyday this week. Throw baby food in the mix, and sometimes I think she needs a bath twice a day.

In the middle of the day I will pick Adah up, and her belly, and legs are so dirty. It honestly makes me laugh!

So Cute You Could Eat It!

I Love browsing Etsy.com! Its one of my favorite things to do to relax. I have not, until recently considered myself a creative person. But, when I look at some of the stuff on etsy, it gets the creative juices flowing! Some of the things I have found are just beyond anything I could ever attempt to do. Like this...

I simply searched, "kitchen," and found this cute apron!

I searched, "baby," for these cuties.

I LOVE looking at the baby headbands because I love making them, and get inspiration from looking at them.

These have to be my favorite of them all! These are soaps made to look like decadent desserts!

Check it out for yourself!

christmas Baking

I posted this last year, and personally, I really enjoyed it! So here it is again!

North Pole Kitchen

It's The Holiday Season

I am in such shock that it's December. I know everybody says that, but I am truly shocked. I feel like it was not that long ago when we were in triple digit heat, and want this time to come soon. August to December seems like a blurry. It wont be long and we will be into 2010, and looking at new babies of friends, and of coarse Adah's 1st birthday. I will be even more shocked at how time flies when that comes around.

Time is such an interesting concept. As children we would look at time as an obstacle, now we look as it passes us by, and think, "how did I get here?" We as a society are obsessed with grasping every second out of our time but cramming as many things into it as we can. We have such a hard time just waiting to see what the Lord is doing. "I am waiting for the Lord, my soul is waiting for Him, and my hope is in His Word." Psalms 130:5 I know that is where my family is right now.

I never thought that we would have to go through such a dark time in our lives, or such a dark year for that matter. So much hurt is synonymous with the year 2009. Adah has been such a joy for all of us in need for distraction. We love looking into her eyes and seeing the joy on her face as she just looks at us. Her hope (for now) is in us. It's in us to care for her, feed her, and comfort her, love her. We are relaying on the Lord in the same way.

Our little family has been doing great! Adah is now 8 months old and I am loving every second being with her. She started saying dada. I LOVE it! We don't know if she really knows what she's saying, but every time I ask her where dada is, she looks at Jon. But then again, she will go up to the dog and call her dada. I, on the other hand, am anxiously awaiting her to say mama. It will happen soon enough.

I hope every one's Thanksgiving was wonderful! Please keep my family in prayer, the Lord knows the details, it is however, very painful.

BurdaStyle

I have recently taken to sewing. I got my brother's sewing machine from the garage, and started playing with it. As with all my projects, I watched as many videos on sewing on YouTube as possible. I have once in my life taken on a sewing project, and it was only with close supervision that I completed my first pair of homemade pajamas when I was 12. I never got to sewing the buttons on, but none the less I made it thus I loved it!

I went to Joanne's one day just to look. I got so overwhelmed by everything that I almost just left. But I stumbled on a fabric that I LOVED! It was a fabric that I had seen used for a Nursing cover, so I used it for just that! I used corset boning for the neck line, and got the D rings from eBay. I made a nursing cover that was at Nordstrom for $35, for a fraction of the price. The most expensive item was the thread, but I have made 2 nursing covers with it and so far I still have plenty.

While I was looking for free patterns, I stumbled across this website for sewing. It has free patters, and other patterns moderately priced. But it also has tutorials for different sewing techniques. It is social networking for people who like to sew!

BurdaStyles

Good Morning Adah

Cupcakes&Cappuccino

I am so excited to go to the Mission Inn festival of lights this year! I am even more excited because we get to take Adah with us for the first time! As a family, we use to go every year. Sometimes braving the ever so crowded day after Thanksgiving lighting. It is such a great Christmas spot, and we are lucky to have it right in our backyard.

Jon and I have been on a Sprinkles cupcake kick lately. Shortly before Chris went to heaven, he would tell Jon about Sprinkles cupcakes, and how much he loved them. So last summer we finally went, and we were hooked! Stopping by whenever we are in Irvine. Jon gets the Red velvet (in honor of Chris) and I get the pumpkin. They are so good!

Yesterday, my brother texted me to say that the Mission inn is opening a Cupcake and Cappuccino bar! I looked it up and sure enough they will! It is set to open December 4, just in time for Christmas. Its not Sprinkles by any means, but it is about 45 min. closer. Bring it on!

Anniversary Re-cap

As promised, I have pictures from our mini vacation in celebration of our anniversary!

Father Daughter Time

Jon loves spending time with Adah. I love watching him spend time with Adah! He is such a great father and husband, I am truly blessed.

This is a conversation I heard while he was playing with her...

Jon: Adah this is a book of shapes. Listen so daddy can teach you about shapes.

Jon: This is a square...

Jon: This is a circle...

Jon: This is triangle...

Jon: This is a hexagon. HEXAGON. Can you say hexagon? Let's say hexagon!

I love them!

Family Watchdog

As a new mother I want the best for my family, especially when it comes to keeping us safe. We have an alarm system in our home (Jon says it's the best money spent) and I am always aware of my surroundings in the neighborhood.

But there is always the feeling that you never REALLY know the person living in the house next to you. We have sweet neighbors, but I don't know anything about them.

I watched a Dr. Phil episode that featured the story of Jaycee Dugard. One tool he gave to families was the website Family Watchdog. It is a free website that you register your address, and they give you a list of all the sex crime offenders in your area on a map. You can look at names addresses, what the convictions were for and a mug shot. They also email you if someone moves in or out of your neighborhood.

As many of you were I was shocked to hear the story of Jaycee Dugard, but I was even more shocked to find that she was living in the backyard of her kidnappers for 18 years! One thing her kidnapper had against him was that he was a prior convicted sex offender.

I wish we could trust everybody and know that our kids are going to be safe, but we don't live in that kind of world. We need to be a step ahead.

Laundrylover

No, I am not a laundry lover by any means, but I know someone who is. That person now has a new blog! My mom!

I helped my Mom start a blog, by getting her started, now it's up to her to drive! She has yet to post on it, but I hope this shout out will put a fire under her butt.

At church, my mom is known as the laundry lady, so going with that theme, the blog name is Laundrylover.blogspot.com

The postings are entirely up to her, but I imagine it will have to do with laundry tips, household tips, child rearing, and devotions.

Keep an eye on it, I'm sure she'll dig it!

Whoa, It's been a long week!

Do you ever feel that you are running a million miles an hour and don't know when its going to slow down? That's how we have been feeling. Everything we are doing is a complete blessing and we would have it no other way, but somehow happens all at the same time. Then throw in a sick kind and husband, and we have an interesting week.

As I said before, Jon and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on October 29th. We had the wonderful blessing of staying at a friends cabin, and it turned out to be a blessed relaxing few days for us as a family!

A few days before we left for the mountains, Adah came down with a pretty bad case of hives. But that is entirely another story. Then Jon wasn't feeling very good, and has continued to not feel good until he went to the doctor this past Tuesday.

All in all it was a great trip! We had fun, we went to Arrowhead, and Big bear. It was freezing, we ate entirely too much, but it was nice to escape the heat of Riverside!

Now, we are getting ready to go to our first married couples retreat! We are both really looking forward to this! it will be nice to stay in Irvine, and in a nice hotel. It will also be nice to get to see all our married couples Friends. Our friends Ray and Erin will be there with their adorable Taylor, so Adah will have a friend. I will also have the amazing opportunity to heal with worship on Friday and Saturday. We are really looking forward to it!

I hope everyone's week is going well, and you are all blessed as we head into the weekend!

PS, I will be posting pics of our trip soon, along with the hives story!

4 Years Ago

 While cleaning I came across a disc that pictures from my wedding shower were on. It doesn't feel like much time has passed, but so much has changed since then. 

Enjoy!

Debbi and Misti. This was the first time I met Misti. The Wiggins were new to our church from Chicago.

Alicia (my MOH) and her Mom Charlene

Me and my Mother-in-law Charla

Alicia, our mothers, and I

Maggie (bridesmaid, and childhood friend), our moms, and I

Opening gifts

Abbie (my sister) Maddi, and Jordan

The Food!

She was so little!

The decor

More Food!