THREE BIRDS

A lot has happened since this time last year.

New years 2009-my tired head hit the pillow well before 8. We hadn't thought about Christmas gifts, or Christmas trees. Our thoughts and hearts were set on the one gift that we were dieing to open-rather-the gift that opened us up. Opened our eyes, opened our hearts, opened us up to love more than our minds could comprehend. Waiting in great expectation for this:

{my belly at 6 months pregnant}

Last year, at this time-I was stealing watermelons from Albertsons:

I labored for 23 hours (half of which without any drugs, on pitosin mind you) that's a whole nother' bowl of Cheerios though...., had a C-section, & wept holding my new son. Depended on the Lord, on my husband, and on my family more than I knew I ever would. Fell in love so bad it hurt, over and over again. Experienced the best day of my life:

We brought our son home in his dinosaur outfit and all...

I'll never forget crying on the phone with Dustin-he crying too, stuck in traffic after I told him our 4 day old son had to wear this terribly adorable-awful contraption. We got really familiar with hip harnesses: (and never got to dress him in those cutsie newborn outfits) our son had Hip Dysplacia when he was born, so I had to go see an orthopedic surgeon.

Conrad had to wear this hideous harness for 8 weeks! Looking back, it wasn't so bad!

Two became three:

I got to watch my best friend become a dad: Crazy and awe inspiring. What a wonderful experience.

I think one of the funniest conversations I've ever had was in the Austin air port restroom. I was hooked up to my bff Lansinoh, talking to all of the ladies who were waiting in line for the john, telling me how bad it must suck to be me, pumping milk infront of a huge line of strangers with my boobs all out...and how they had pumped in gas station restrooms too. That was one of my favorite mom memories this year. I'll never forget that.

I really didn't mind pumping for almost 6 months.

I felt like my whole existence was centered around

being glued to that pump every 2 hours.

It was awful, but in retrospect, really funny too.

I have fond memories of Dustin and I watching Conan O'Brien late at night. He doing the Daddy thing feeding the dude, and me doing the Mommy thing, making the food. I hold onto those memories-even if we were zombies.

It's a sweet memory for me-he feeding our son, and me pumping.

I became a mom this year. Pretty much the biggest title I'll ever hold.

MOM!

Wow...I never imagined I would experience such joy, such pride,

such intimacy with my husband.

It was rough, it was unbelievable, it was insane and painfully wonderful.

This had by far been the best year of my life.

I was strong for my son while he got his bandages changed,

after I gave him his first owie (on accident):

I got surprised on my birthday with a picnic in the park. Best way to turn 25!

We learned that you can be EVEN MORE in love than you were "before baby."

Life doesn't end after children, like all of the "Debbie Downers" said it would!

{Jerks. What do they know anyway! Screw'em!}

Conrad had his first plane ride to Texas to see uncle Brandon graduate.

We saw sharks in the aquarium too.

It was mind blowing-if he had been awake to witness it...

Conrad had his first Christmas and opened his first present

with help from his uncle Ethan:

Santa-Conrad:

Dustin became an Engineer. A real engineer, not just one who overlooks plans

and is your "gofer". No longer an intern! He is a living, breathing Engineer

who does stuff and tells people what to do and does experiments on soil!

This year taught us that before we had our baby (WHAT the hell DID WE DO WITH OUR TIME!) and secondly, our hearts grew, we sacrificed much, we fought for our marriage, made some amazing friendships, love Jesus more (so much more), learned we were capable of SO much, celebrated victories, celebrated blessings, celebrated answers to prayers-because God's love goes on and on, celebrated successes that can only be explained by miracles and held onto the hope that

we will never be hopeless.

The three of us: My favorite family portrait of us thus far:

Mostly, I'm just really blown away at how God provided over and over-abundantly and that we NEVER went without. EVEN in the small, teeniest things in life, He went over and above what I thought He was capable of. He delivered again and again. My faith in who my God is was shattered. He came in and completely put new eyes in my head to see him as he is-grew my faith-spoke to me like it was the first time my ears had heard. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm a mom now. So seeing the world through a parents eyes gives me a whole new perspective of how he views me as His child. Weird. Totally awesome too.

Happy new year friends. I hope a lot of really crazy things happen for you this year

and your world gets rocked in really awesome ways.