Walking!!

Our little man is walking!!! And it's the most incredible experience to watch him learn how. Last Monday when I was done with work, I went to pick him up and when we got home I was just playing with him and he took a few steps towards me. By now he is walking half way across the room or down the hall. It's amazing what a week does!!

I just searched through all our photos and I don't really have any pictures of him on the move. Maybe I'll try to capture that later and post some. :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Fall Updates

Well, sadly, it's been a while. Blogging and I have a love-hate relationship. I want to do it all the time but it's just one of those things that falls to the bottom of my priority list.

Anyway....just thought I'd fill the page with some fun pictures of the last month or two! Enjoy :)

Saturday

I'm so thankful for Saturdays. I forgot how wonderful they could be! Raleigh is now home on the weekends and it's AWESOME!!!! He hasn't been home on the weekends in over 2 years (you think I'm kidding? I'm not). AND, he will be home tomorrow too! On Sunday!!! We have football on and I am doing some cleaning, Wesley is taking a nap, Raleigh went for a run, and we already enjoyed a morning together shopping for some things we needed (ok, and some things we wanted). Tonight we even get to go out on a date. It's been a while for that as well. I think this day is going to end up being extremely refreshing. It's the simple things that I have to be thankful for today.

:)

Just Do It!

This week I have a lot to be thankful for. Like....A LOT!!!! Because Raleigh landed himself a brand new job working for NIKE!!!

I am SO pumped and he is really, really excited as well. It is a tough company to get into and is well known for treating their employees well. The best part (to me) is that he will have a normal schedule. Woohoo!!! No more going to bed without him 4 nights of the week, no more weekends all by myself, no more hearing him wake up at 4:30am for work, no more graveyard shifts! We are both really thankful for this new opportunity. God provided it in His perfect timing. When Raleigh first started looking for new jobs I never thought he would get a job at Nike so this is just a really big blessing (a word I don't like to overuse, but in this case, that is exactly what this is).

What will he do, you ask? He's the assistant to the guy in charge of all the outlet stores on the west coast (that's my paraphrase:) ). Pretty sweet! His office is actually not at the Nike World Headquarters (bummer...that place is absolutely amazing) but who can complain? He'll still get to go there often I believe, and his office is just close to downtown Portland. We are super excited- he starts September 26th! Thank you Lord!!!

Blackberries

Ahhh blackberry season. I love this season because blackberries are all over the place here and they're free!!! Today I went for a run and was just kicking myself for not bringing along a container of some kind to pick. I cannot resist free berries! I went on a route I normally don't go on (had to return a redbox so I figured why not kill 2 birds with one stone and jog there?) so I didn't know there would be so many gorgeously peeking blackberries! But there were. And as I'm jogging next to them I'm trying to think of how I could shove them in the stroller or empty my water bottle to put them in there or just eat them all. :) But I didn't....Maybe I will go back there tomorrow and pick.

Needless to say...they are YUMMY. I'm very thankful for Blackberry season in the Northwest!!

Bob and Wesley

Well here are the two things I'm thankful for today: Bob and Wesley. Bob being my BOB jogging stroller that we got on craigslist that allows me to jog! I absolutely love it. It keeps me sane, in shape, and healthy. And how could you not love that smiling face peeking out from there?!!

Thankful for...??

No picture today people, sorry. The last 3 days have been tough ones to think of things to be thankful for. But, every day I have still found things to dwell on.

The days have been rough because once again my 7-month-old is teething. And he is super cranky. And doesn't sleep as well. And just seems unhappy, which makes me sad. :( Oh and he has a VERY loud voice.

BUT....today, I am thankful for HIM. Yes, I am thankful for Wesley. Even though he drives me crazy sometimes, I am so glad I have him. When Raleigh left for work today, I cried (call me a wimp but I did). I didn't think I could take a 3rd day in a row of this (oh, and did i mention that my amazing family even came yesterday and stayed 6 hours longer than they were going to because I begged them not to go? they were awesome- another thing I'm thankful for!). But as he left for work, on a Sunday morning, I thought, ya know, this day would be more sad if I were by myself! Call me crazy but it's true! I would be lonely, not sure what to do with myself for the next 10 hours, and probably kinda down/depressed. But at least I am being a mom and taking care of our sweet boy that the Lord has entrusted us with.

Thank you, Lord, for that. Thank you that I have Wesley, even though at times he does give me a run for my money. Thank you. So much.

Comfy Living

Today I'm thankful for the place that I live. We live in a beautiful condo complex that is homey, comfy, safe, and possibly a little luxurious. It was our number one choice among the other apartments or condos that we looked at when we moved here. I love it!!

Thankful

I'm back! It's been 2 months...yikes!! And I have a new idea for my blog!

I've decided I am going to turn my blog into a weekly or daily "I'm Thankful For..." blog. I will post a picture (hopefully) of what I'm thankful for on that day or for that week and just a quick explanation of why. I'm hoping this will be encouraging to anyone out there reading.

This is something I've really been convicted of lately. In any time of life, you can find things to grumble and complain about. But the most important thing is to focus on what you're thankful for. I believe this is the best way to find contentment- remaining thankful for what you DO have.

So today, I start with one of the biggest and probably the most obvious thing I'm thankful for:

My amazing husband and my precious little boy.

Life would be stale without them.

They are what gets me up in the morning.

They are pure joy to my soul.

Thank you, Lord, for Raleigh and Wesley.

I'm Back! And with mommy questions!

My Little Guy:)

I decided that I may as well continue blogging, and in my posts, if I don't have anything else to say, I will ask mommy questions. Since a lot of you out there who read my blog are moms, I think this would be an awesome way to get some support and feedback (which I am definitely in need of)! So, here are my first questions for anyone who is willing to answer:

-What do you do with a 5-month-old? It's an odd stage. He can't really move around enough to entertain himself, but he's old enough to really desire to be stimulated a lot of the day. Any ideas for this age?

-When did YOU start rice cereal with your baby? I'm thinking about starting Wesley on rice cereal this weekend. He'll be 22 weeks old. I feel like it's time but just wondered what others of you are doing or did.

Well that's it for now. :) Thanks in advance to anyone who wants to give me a little feedback.

Bad Blogger

I know, I know, I have not blogged in 2 months. Why, you ask? The honest truth is that I just have other things to do in life! One of them being my little 4-month-old boy and my wonderful 26-year-old husband. My boys are so precious to me and I am enjoying every moment I have with them! But anyway, back to blogging, I just don't feel like I have time for it! Between taking care of Wesley, working part-time, trying to keep up on the laundry/house work, and spending time with our families, all of my "spare" time is put into just relaxing and recuperating. But of course, there isn't much spare time left after all of that. So to give you a quick update...life is wonderful. Raleigh and I feel so blessed. This doesn't mean we don't go through days or even weeks of frustrating moments or difficult things, but overall, we have such a good life and are very thankful.

So I guess for now I am taking a break from the blog. Sorry if that disappoints anyone! But if you do want updates...just follow me on Facebook. Somehow, I do find time to update THAT.... ;) And for now I'll leave you with a picture of me and my little man Wesley.

Two Months Old and the story of how he got here

My little Wesley is 2 months old!! He's just as sweet and precious as ever. I love him SO much (especially now that he's sleeping longer in the night...that certainly helps!). I thought I might share the labor story too so here goes.

Thursday morning, January 7th:

2am- wake up with steady constant contractions. 5 minutes apart, walking the halls in the house doesn't make them go away.

7am- I decide 5 hours of this means it's worthy of going to the hospital so we head there.

7:30am- Get checked in and they say I'm 1.5cm, and I need to walk the hall for 2 hours to see if it makes progress.

8am-10am- walk the halls...boring! :)

10am- Get checked. Still 1.5cm so they send us home. At this point contractions are definitely more intense.

noon-6pm- at home enduring contractions...they are getting worse. We picked up the movie Inception to kill time. Yeah...not a good movie to watch while you're in labor...it's already a confusing movie let alone when you are struck with pain every 3 to 4 minutes.

7pm- I decide this is too intense and we need to go back to the hospital.

7:30pm- Get checked in. I'm only 2.5cm!! WHAT?!!!? All that work for only 1cm of progress? I am not happy. :( Because I hadn't made much progress, they sent us home...AGAIN. But this time with a sleeping pill for me. They say to come back when the contractions are "more intense". Hmm....right....

10pm- We get home and I am out. But I only sleep for about 2hrs.

JANUARY 8TH:

Midnight-5am- I am enduring crazy painful contractions. I can't sleep and I'm also loopy 'cause of this sleeping pill. I'm trying everything...bath, different positions, etc.

5am- I decide this is enough and we have to go back for a 3rd time. If nothing else I need an epidural to take away this pain!

6:30am- We get to the car (I can seriously barely walk at this point) and it's icy out. :( Makes us both pretty nervous.

7am- Arrive at hospital and get checked....I am at 9.5cm!!!! WOAH, I just labored at home the whole time!! I ask if I can still get an epidural and they say yes I definitely can, but that they're going to break my water and then I can begin pushing! So I am OK with that!

8:00am- We are in the delivery room and I begin pushing. I ask the doctor how long she thinks I will have to push. She says 20 minutes. I think to myself, I can't do that! Little did I know....it will be an hour and 20 minutes.....

9:25am- Wesley Adam Willard is born!!!! They hold him up and I see it's a boy and they put him on my stomach. Best feeling EVER. He was so warm and truly, don't call me a bad mother, but truly, I was more happy to be done with labor and pushing out this baby than to have him there. But after about 5 minutes, I was more relieved to have him there. Oh it was just so amazing. Then Raleigh went out into the waiting room to tell our families, and we opened the blinds and it was snowing...ahh. It was a great moment. Oh yeah and then I ordered TONS of food. I've never felt like I burned so many calories as during those 32 hrs of labor.

So here he is now....2 months old. I can't believe it!! We love him so much!

Wesley Adam

Wesley Adam Willard has arrived! Our baby boy came into this world on January 8th, 2011 at 9:25am. He was 8lbs 5oz and 20.5in long. He's healthy and beautiful and we absolutely LOVE him!!! Someday I may post about the whole labor experience but that may be when I actually have some time. :-) It's amazing how much time a little baby can take. For now, here are a few of my favorite pics (they are in reverse order...not because I don't know how to reverse them but because I am either lazy or have no time since I'm a new mom!):

We are home!!
In the hospital :)

This was the moment they laid him on me (or very close to it).
This one is Raleigh going out into the waiting room and telling our families!!

Update, Due Date

Tomorrow is my due date! I say that not because I'm expecting anything to magically happen but just because I can't believe it's here! I am both proud of myself for making it through the whole pregnancy and yet also I feel like it's been a pretty easy pregnancy so far so I'm very, very thankful for that.

As for an update....I've been having contractions since Jan. 1 but nothing consistent. The most consistent was yesterday, and it lasted for about 2 hours. Then I've been having them just now for the past hour at least. I also have them at other times but again, nothing consistent or that I could really time and keep track of. Still, it's exciting! And it makes me hope I could possibly go into labor soon!

I have an induction date scheduled also which is January 14th at 8PM. So most likely Baby would come on the 15th (which would be cool because my birthday is Dec. 15, Rals is Aug. 15, and we were married on July 15th). BUT....I would way rather have this baby come earlier!! If not in the next few days...maybe 1/11/11...?? At least we have a few cool date options here.

Besides majorly craving sugar and being a little bored (a horrible combination by the way!), I'm doing very well. Rals and I are just so excited for this baby to come. More updates later I'm sure.

Christmas

Well Christmas has come and gone and now our focus is on getting this baby here safe and sound!! But first...a review of our Christmas season. It was a wonderful one! We spent Christmas Eve with my family here at our place. Raleigh had to work on Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day (this was definitely the biggest bummer of the time...) so our schedule was a little tricky. After doing gifts and going to our new church's Christmas Eve service downtown Portland, I said good-bye to my family and headed over to McMinnville to be with the Willard side of the family for Christmas Day. Raleigh came there late that night and was able to spend Christmas morning with all of us. Adam and Laura (Raleigh's brother and wife) were there with their sweet little baby Ben! It's so fun to be an aunt!

We also had a great New Year's. Raleigh had the whole weekend off (making up for Christmas I guess...?) so we had a nice time just laying low and taking it easy. We also got a lot done for this baby's arrival and I'm beginning to feel more caught up. I hope the baby comes soon!! But I'm not holding my breath....my due date is the 6th and I'm guessing he/she will be late. I hope I'm wrong though. Ok, here are some pictures (unfortunately I don't have many!):

Willard family (didn't get a picture of my side of the family...bummer!)

Raleigh and me with baby Ben

Christmas Eve...Raleigh sure does look nice! :)

Mostly Moved In

Once again it's been quite a while since I have updated the blog. I'd say in the last 6 weeks or so, I've been just a bit busy. :) Within 2 weeks we packed up our life in Southern California, said good-bye, and moved back up to Oregon. We lived in the hotel for a week and thankfully found a place just in time for the moving company to arrive with all our stuff. We spent the whole month of November trying to get unpacked, painted, and decorated. And finally we are feeling like this place is home. And we love it!! Below are a few pictures of our new place and of my belly. Belly pic is at my parent's house on Thanksgiving...34 weeks at that time, by now though I'm 35. :)

Moving Back Home

First off, I've been a HORRIBLE blogger and I know it. We went on an amazing trip to New York City and Boston in the middle of September. We had such a blast!! When we got back it was too overwhelming to think about blogging about it though so I kind of gave up on blogging. :) But now we are moving and I'm SO excited to share this story with everyone. God has really blessed us and done great things.

For the last year and a half or so, we have really wanted to move. Especially the last year. Fall of 2009 we decided we needed to have Raleigh start looking for jobs in the Northwest again. We hoped to move in January 2010. But that didn't happen. He applied for a few things, only one of which was anywhere in the Northwest, and it was in the Seattle area. Then we decided it'd be best for him to take this supervisor job that he has right now at the Marriott here. He took that job in March and they asked for a 6-month commitment...which takes us to September.

At this point, we feel the best thing to do with Raleigh's career is to have him continue at Marriott. Transferring is very easy to do and is encouraged in the company so all we needed to do was have him transfer to Portland! Sounds easy enough, right?! Nope, not at all. First of all, there are only 2 Marriott-owned properties in all of Oregon. There are lots of other Marriotts but they are franchised so he couldn't transfer into them. One of the two that are owned by Marriott is really small, which left really only 1 great option: the downtown waterfront property. During these last 6 months Rals has been keeping his eye on that property for openings (not that he could have even applied). NOTHING has come up at all that he could have applied for. So when September rolled around, we were just hoping he could at least get something in the Seattle area so we could come back to the Northwest.

We decided that since we were pretty limited with Oregon/Washington properties we had better come up with an alternative. At this point we really, REALLY want to leave the desert and start new again somewhere else. So we decided that Denver would be a good idea to look at. We've heard great things about it, they have lots of good career opportunities for Rals, and I could have seasons and colder weather again! :) First week of September comes and Raleigh had a good conversation with his boss about our plans. While we were in New York, a Denver job opened up and Raleigh applied. The next day (while still on vacation) he got a call for an interview for the next Monday. He interviewed for that and actually another one or two jobs in Denver...but nothing really happened with them for a week or two. Last week of September rolls around and I'm starting to get a little nervous about this so I just began to pray and specifically ask God to open something for him in Portland or Seattle. Also keep in mind we are in a pretty strict time table here. The baby is due Jan. 6 so anything too far into November and we really shouldn't move. So we don't have a lot of time.

The last day of September, Rals came home and said that another job had opened up, but that this one was actually at the downtown waterfront property in Portland!!!! And, it was a supervisor of the front office job which would fit him much better than some of the ones in Denver. I was really excited but not very optimistic. Lots of properties will post jobs but already have in mind who they are going to hire (if it's an internal thing). So part of me figured that would be the case. But the next day, he got a call from them and they were really excited to talk with him and set up an interview for that Monday! This was a REALLY good sign and I immediately had peace about the whole thing and really felt like God was going to do this for us.

STILL though, waiting was so hard!!! At the end of the interview Monday they said they wanted to do a 2nd interview and that they'd call the next day to set that up. They didn't call until Thursday and that really made me nervous! But he had an interview the next day, Friday, and Raleigh told me it went REALLY well. I was so excited. They also told him that they guaranteed we would hear back from them on Monday!! So we waited patiently yet with much anticipation this whole last weekend.

Monday comes around and no call. Tuesday came and went, no call. I was trying to not have emotion breakdowns...lol! It was so tough! Those two days were great opportunities for me to just rely on the Lord and put it all back in His hands over and over again. Wednesday comes and Raleigh told me that if he hasn't heard from them by lunchtime, he was going to call them. Finally, around lunch, I got a call from him and he said he had been offered the job!!! We were ecstatic and I cried. :) Not only did he get the job, but they said they liked him so much and wanted to be sure he would take the job that they were going to start him off at a higher pay than they usually start people off at! This was ALSO a huge answer to prayer because the pay was a big unknown. I couldn't imagine them offering him the job and then having to turn it down because of pay!

So everything ended up working out absolutely perfectly. I mean really--if you had asked me to give you the ideal situation for us, this would have been it (maybe without those extra two days of waiting though...haha). It couldn't get too much more ideal. I'm still amazed, absolutely amazed, at how God orchestrated all of this for us. These last 3 years down here have been extremely stretching and we have learned so much, grown a ton, and now to have Him bless us in this way, it's so wonderful. Don't get me wrong though...there are people here that we will really, really miss. I don't feel like we have made TONS of friends, but the friends we have made are close and have made our time here good. I could say a lot more but I think you get the picture. :) God has always taken care of us. Even when bad things have happened or when he has said "wait", "wait", and then again, "wait"...He's still always taken care of us. And now He has chosen to take care of us with a huge blessing. :)

Here is a verse that I decided to claim through this whole thing and I will leave you with this:

Lamentations 3: 25-26 "The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord."

Trip # 3&4 of the Summer

This summer has been so busy for us! After our trip to Texas, we got to go to San Diego because my family was vacationing there! It was a lot of fun. The day before we went, Raleigh officiated a wedding!! He did such a great job. There's a picture of him at the very bottom of this post. I was so proud of him. :-) San Diego was so much fun, and it was great for us to get out of our bad weather, into the perfect weather over there.

Then, Raleigh's parents came to visit! Since it's summer here and it was Raleigh's birthday, we decided to get out of town with them as well! We went to Newport Beach, one of our favorite places to hang out. Enjoy the pics. :) And our last trip of the summer is coming up in 2 weeks....we're going to NEW YORK!!! I'm so excited!

Trip #2 of the summer: Texas

So our second trip for the summer was to Austin, TX (and Waco, TX as well). Raleigh was a groomsmen in one of his friend's weddings so we needed to make the trip. And, Adam and Laura (my brother-in-law and sister-in-law) just moved to Austin about 2 months ago, so we were able to visit them, too! It was a lot of fun. I had never been to Texas before but had always wanted to visit, just to see what it's like. We had a great time! Enjoy the pics:

Our Rental Car! haha

We went to the town (and actually all the way up to their gate) where George W. Bush and Laura Bush are from.

And we went to the Dr. Pepper Museum :)

Here we are at the wedding :)

Visiting the University of Texas, where Adam is now working.

And of course, we had to get in some real, authentic BBQ! It was really, really good, and not at all like what I've had before! This was inside the place we went.

Rals and Adam

Our Baby

This last week I had a normal appointment. They had told us ahead of time that I would have a physical (oh joy) and that we would be able to hear the baby's heartbeat, but wouldn't have an ultrasound. No problem, I thought, as I at least want to hear the heartbeat and make sure it's still OK. :) Well our very kind doctor said she really wanted to give us a quick peak, because from 9weeks to 14weeks, the development is huge. So we got to see the baby!! It was so adorable! It actually looked like a baby this time. Amazing! It wouldn't move very much for us but we could tell it was trying to suck it's thumb. At the very end, it turned its back to us! haha. Very cute. I think it didn't want to be disturbed. The pictures are below, and a shot of me yesterday, 15weeks. The bump is coming in pretty slowly...but it's coming. :)