A day in the life of....

The world's cutest 5 month old!


I poop, nurse, kiss daddy goodbye then go back to sleep with mommy. We are not morning people around here and I love to stay in bed and snuggle.



After we finally get up I'm ready to exercise my chubby little legs in the bouncer and mommy is ready for a cup of coffee.



Next I do some stretching on my playmat and grab my toys that dangle above me.





Then mommy makes me pose for some pictures so she can send them to daddy and laugh at how ridiculous I look in my enormous cloth diaper and rainbow baby legs.



Mommy puts me in my swing to watch one of my Praise Baby DVDs while she gets ready to take me on a walk. I love to learn songs about Jesus!





My aunt and cousins came over to walk to the park with us! Not much playing happened because we were too sleepy. I love spending time with my family though!

Prayer Request

Please please please pray for baby Stellan. His mom, MckMama, is one of my favorite bloggers. He is in the PICU right now with SVT, he almost lost his life to this heart condition while still in his mother's womb. His heart rate was up to 300 beats per minute during the night and nothing that they are doing seems to help. Pray for his heart rate to slow down, for the doctors and nurses to have guidance in treating him and for his family to be at peace. I can't imagine what they most be going through. I feel as if I know Stellan b/c he's 2 days older then Bishop and I've watched them grow together.

Here's another precious pic from Bishop's somewhat racey photoshoot. Pretty soon naked pictures won't be very appropriate.

Being still...

I think that God has been sending me a message lately to be still. I can't tell you how many times I have come across the verse "Be still, and know that I am God" ~Psalm 46:10 over the past week. I love that verse and when I read it a feel such a peace come over me. I desire that more than anything but it's so hard when I have a 4 month old to take care of, dog to take out, laundry to do, dishes to be washed, bills to be payed, herbalist course to study, books to be read, blogs to write, twittering to do and of course facebooking...you get the point. My "quiet time" and stillness gets pushed to the bottom of the list. But I'm starting to understand that God doesn't just want me to stop what I'm doing and literally be still but to make my mind still as well. I also love Psalm 131:2 "I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me" I've heard it several times but never really understood it, why is a weaned child used as an example and not a nursing child? Then last night I read my new book "Satisfy My Thirsty Soul" by Linda Dillow and she explained it to me. I opened up to chapter 3 and it's titled "My Soul Finds Stillness" and under it is what else but Psalm 46:10, at that moment I thought okay God I can take a hint. Anyways, Linda had asked herself that same question and writes that when a child is weaned they no longer look to our bodies as a means to satisfy their hunger, they are content. That was the point that David was trying to get across when he wrote Psalm 131....he was satisfied and content he wasn't approaching God with requests but he was just wanting to be still in God's presence. That's a beautiful thought isn't it? I think that that is what God is wanting me to experience. I'm constantly asking Him to help heal sick babies, to protect my baby, my family, friends and me. I have a long list of prayer requests and praises that I fill my prayers with all through the day but I think that basically He wants me to just be quiet and content sometimes. It's such a simple thought but so hard to grasp.

Here are some more pictures that our friend Richard took for us! Tomorrow I am fasting from the computer, television, phone and radio so I won't be posting again until later in the week...try to hold back your tears. ;) My bible study leader, Denise, asked us all to fast this Tuesday and to focus on praying for eachother throughout the day. Since I'm breastfeeding I can't fast from food so I chose electronics. I'm kind of looking forward to it. It will be a nice way to clear my head and refocus. I have so much that I need to do for my herbalist course anyways. My next project is to make bread from scratch! After I finish with the nutrition portion I'll start studying about pregnancy, birth and vaccines which you all know I can't get enough research on that topic!

Not Me Monday

This one is for my mom!
My mom did not mistake my 4 month old for his 14 month old cousin and try to feed him a spoonful of lasgana! That would have been a big jump from breastmilk. No pureed carrots or peas inbetween just straight from breatmilk to lasgana!

I did not try to paint my neice's fingernails and spill bright red nailpolish on my parent's carpet and I didn't have a flash back to when I spilled black nailpolish at their house last summer. F.Y.I. windex works great for removing nailpolish from carpet.

Prayer Request

There is a sweet family who needs not only our prayers but also donations. If you are able to I'm sure anything would be appreciated and if you can't then spread the word to someone who might be able to. They have an 8 month old baby who was born 3 months premature, weighing only 1 lb! Their daughter Kayleigh will hopefully be getting out of the hospital soon but they don't know if she will have a house to come home to. The parents are both realtors and the economy has hurt their business drastically not to mention all of the medical expenses they have from trying to save their baby girl's life. Read more of their amazing story here and if you can please donate to help save them from foreclosure. I have a donation button on the left-hand side-bar. More importantly please lift Kayleigh up in your prayers and ask for her health to continue to improve and that she gets a good report from an upcoming MRI and analysis for her eyes(they think she might be blind). Thank you!

4 month update

Bishop had his 4 month doctor visit today minus the vaccines. ;) He was quite the little charmer and had everyone there under his spell. Everything went great and he weighed in at 16 pounds! He is in the 66th percentile for weight and 79th for heigth which was a big jump from his 2 month visit. I talked to Dr. Kalb about his eczema and he recommended that I eliminate dairy to see if it helps. The poor thing has had a hard time with it and vaseline is the only thing working so far so hopefully we will see some good results from me changing my diet. I tried eliminating dairy once before for his gas but didn't see a change from it. The only thing that helps the gas is his daily dose of probiotics. I'm excited to try an even better probiotic called returi that my sister told me about and maybe it will help even more. Reuteri is naturally found in breast milk and it helps with healthy digestion and boosts the immune system. Bishop is also starting to roll over. It's funny because my sister just asked me last night if he has started that (you can tell she has had three kids, she knows exactly when all of the milestones should happen) and then I noticed him doing it last night! He seems to want to do it more when he's sleeping which makes me nervous. Good thing he sleeps right next to me so I know if anything is wrong. Some people might think that I'm crazy but I love having him in bed to snuggle with and I'll be sad when he starts to sleep in his own bed. It works for us and he loves it too. Jeremy said that I was smiling while I was asleep the other morning, it was probably because I knew that my sweet baby was next to me.

What breaks your heart?

I've been in an emotionally intense bible study on Esther with mom and Lori a.k.a. Ma and Moppa for the past several weeks and we've covered alot of great topics like the importance of having a mentor and this past week our leader, Denise Hildreth, talked to us about finding an organization to give back to. At least I think that was what she said Bishop has decided that he doesn't want to sleep through bible study anymore so I was in the back trying to keep him quiet the majority of the time. Anyways, it got me thinking about where I feel like I'm called to help. Denise said that if something breaks our heart then that is usually where God will use us most. There are so many things that break my heart like abortion, genocide, cancer, the list goes on and on but recently my heart has felt heaviest over sick babies that I have read about in the "blogworld". I feel like I am on a personal level with these families because they are sharing themselves so intimately with us in hopes that we can help them. It breaks my heart to see helpless innocent babies clinging to life and their parents dying inside not being able to save them. I think about Bishop and how grateful I am for his health and how it would kill me if anything were to happen to him. The faith of these parents amazes me. Its inspiring to see parents in their situation not blame God but glorify Him even more. The biggest way that I feel like I can help them is to pray. I pray everyday for their healing and for miracles to happen because I know that God can do that if we ask especially if we ask in numbers. If you don't believe that miracles can happen from prayer then read MckMama's story or Kelly's story. They had access to thousands of people through their blogs to pray for their miracle babies. Also check out this amazing story and picture of an angel appearing at the very same moment a miracle was happening . If you were in their situations wouldn't you like to know that you have a powerful team of prayer warriors on your side? I am always adding new buttons to the sidebar of families who need our prayers and I hope that you will take time to read their heart wrenching stories and pray for them. I am realistic and I know that not all of my prayers will be answered the way I would like them to but that won't stop me from trying. Having faith means that you don't question why some people are healed and others aren't...it is beyond our understanding.

"And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up." ~James 5:15

Not Me Monday

This week I did not let the dishes pile up so high in the sink that I could barely get to the faucet to fill the dog bowl.

I also did not leave the house in a hurry to get to work and try to lock the front door with the remote to my car...which by the way I think would be a genius invention.
I did not trim Bishop's nails with my teeth because I was too lazy to get up and get the clippers. It actually worked pretty well!
And finally I have not been eagerly waiting for my organic sheets and adorable onesies to come in only to find out that I never actually submitted the order. This wouldn't be a big deal if I hadn't thrown away the gift card that I used to buy them with and the frustrating fact that they are no longer on sale. :(

He melts my heart...

He's cute even when he's mad!

Poopy Diapers

Yesterday was the first day to use cloth diapers. I thought that I had it all planned out to avoid having to deal with poop in them on our trial day. Bishop normally poops early in the morning and then is fine the rest of the day so after his predicted morning poop I put him in his sweet grasshopper colored cloth diaper. He pooped in that one. I put him in the next cute little buttercup yellow diaper. He pooped in that one too. He was a pooping machine! I don't think he has ever pooped that much in one day. Thankfully he didn't poop in the third cloth diaper I put him which was white as snow. This is going to be more challenging then I thought so we're taking a break today. Besides the diapers just finished the second cycle in the washing machine trying to remove the poop stains. The amount of water and energy I am going to have to use will probably completely undermind any good I'm trying to do for the environment. I also seriously underestimated the number of diapers that I am going to have to buy...3 is not going to cut it! What have I gotten myself into?

4 months today!

The only good thing that I think of about winter is that there are some really cute outfits to put Bishop in. He looks so much older in his little sweater and jeans and I've been dying to put him in his snowsuit. All of Bishop's cousins have worn the snowsuit and today he got his turn!