5 Years Ago

Friday, March 13th, 2009, Lesh and I celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage. Now all of you pessimists, yes, I do mean wonderful years! Lesh has been a blessing to me. I am so thankful that God brought him into my life. These last 5 years have been a time of growing and learning about Lesh and myself. Through marriage God streches you, prunes you, and corrects you.

2Timothy 3:15-17 says, All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Let me tell you, "every good work," includes my marriage. Learning how to serve each other in love and to be selfless requires lots of time in God's Word. I definately need to spend way more time in the Word!! Marriage is a good way to display your weaknesses or an opportunity to show God's greatness and grace. The title of this blog is Best of Friends because Lesh is truly my best friend. He knows when I'm upset, and knows if I need him to offer help or if I just need him to listen. He has a romantic side to him as well and does the sweetest things for me. I came home one time to find Lesh steam cleaning our carpet and couch. I had mentioned wanting to have that done and he did it. I find that very romantic! Stop laughing at me. When you are the one who cleans the house and someone else does it for you? That is romantic! What a man!

This past weekend we celebrated with a night away on the town. We had dinner at Goode Company, watched a rather different kind of movie- The Watchmen, slept for 10 glorious hours at the Renaissance Hotel, and then headed home the next day with a lay over at Cracker Barrell. My parents were gracious enough to stay the night with him at our house and he was a doll for them! Thank you mom and dad for watching him for us!!

This is a picture of Lesh and I on our 1st anniversary of dating (Jan. 2004) . We were already engaged and set to be married 3 months later. I think our dating anniversary is actually Nathaniel's birthdate. Who knew???

Today marks Nathaniel's 7 week mark! He is growing so much! He goes to the Dr. next week to get his shots, which will not be fun for mommy! Please pray that I won't fall apart and cry... sniff, sniff. Here is a picture of him today during one of his naps!

All Smiles!!

The latest great thing that Nathaniel is doing is smiling!!! I love to see him smile. It is one of life's greatest pleasures to see your own son smile, not just gassy smiles either. These are the real ones. They make my heart overflow. Lesh is great at getting him to smile. He loves his daddy!!

Lesh's cousin showed this pic to her little boy and he said, "Moo Cow Baby!"

This is an I love mommy smile!

1 month/ 5 weeks Old!

Lesh and I can't believe how fast Nathaniel is growing!! He turned 1 month old on Friday. He is starting to coo a whole lot and is smiling!! I love to see his face light up. He is the cutest thing ever!! He is also filling out as you can see his belly! Here are some recent pictures of our little man.

I'm 1 month old!!

Do I look like I was born yesterday?

Isn't his smile great!!! I just want to eat him up!

Go Longhorns!! Can you guess where he is going to college?

Bath Time

Tummy Time

Valentine's Day

On Valentine's Day we decided to dress Nathaniel up in his Valentine's outfit that my mom got him and prop him next to his teddy bear that my mom-n-love got him. I think they turned out cute!

I believe he weighs some where in between 8-10 lbs. I tried weighing him on our scale but it wasn't very accurate. I guess I'll have to wait until his next trip to the doctor which isn't until next month.

Now I haven't posted on my blog page in 2 weeks! You ask why? Well, the work of a mommy is never done! Especially when you have a newborn. This transition has been a little difficult for me. One, because I had a little bit of the baby blues- crying for no reason. Friends tell me this is normal as my hormones are re stabilizing. I didn't realize how out of control my emotions would be. Two, I am adjusting to being at home alone. I'm used to being around tons of women who talk all the time- teachers. I was never alone at work.

What I love is being with Nathaniel and hearing him coo, feeding him and just snuggling up to his tiny body. I love holding him on my chest and my hand hold up his little bottom. I love looking at his blue eyes, his long tiny fingers and toes. I love waking him up from his naps and seeing him stretch out and open his mouth as wide as possible yawning. I love hearing his grunting noises when he is trying to eat or dirty his diaper. I love how God gave Lesh and I this perfect gift from heaven. It is awesome to know that God has a wonderful plan for his life. Lesh and I can't wait to see how God will use Nathaniel in other peoples lives. He has changed ours already in only 3 weeks. Thank you God for Nathaniel!

Nathaniel's First Week

What a week! Lesh and I have been totally blown away with the blessing that Nathaniel has been. I don't even have the words to express what joy I feel in my heart, but the tears that fall down my face say it all. I walked into his nursery last night while he was asleep and just stared at him, amazed by God's gift to us, and cried some more (although some of this is probably hormonal fluctuations). Lesh and I never knew we could love so much and we've enjoyed every minute spent with him.

Lesh took two weeks off from work to spend with us and this has been the greatest thing ever. Lesh is the awesomest dad in the whole wide world. Lesh's favorite thing to call Nathaniel is "li'l bud". It is so rewarding watching Lesh have "wake time" with Nathaniel. Lesh has explained to him Einstein's Theory of Relativity, reads books to him, and enjoys diaper changing time. In fact, I think Nathaniel enjoys it even more because he's peed on Lesh not once, but twice! I laughed my head off, but I do have to say that he did get me once today too. Lesh was amazed by how high his stream was.

I've enjoyed the bonding that is feeding time and Nathaniel has done a great job breastfeeding. So well in fact that he's almost back up to his birth weight. At the doctor's office today he was up to 6 pounds, 8.4 ounces. The doctor said that Nathaniel is doing great and what most babies do in 10 days, he's done in 4. Nathaniel is GT already! His jaundice is gone, although we're going to keep sunning him a bit just to be safe. He said that he's extraordinarily wiggly, able to turn from side to side already. I could have told you that from how much he moved in my belly! He's also got a great shaped head, the doctor said he gets that from his dad.

These are a few of his favorite things:

Nathaniel loves his time in the sun!

Look Mom and Dad, baby fish mouth!

During "wake time" Nathaniel spends time in his "my little lamb" swing.

Another precious "wake time" activity is Space Adventure! He's just like his dad.

So maybe bath time is not one of his favorites, but he'll grow to love it! This is his first bath.

Nathaniel loved being in his lion towell better than being bathed. Isn't he the cutest cub ever?

Thank you everyone for praying for us, we have surely felt your prayers! It has been wonderful having friends and family come visit us this week. We hope to be seeing a lot more of you! Check back soon for week two!