The Good Life

We don't go to church every Sunday (as much as we would like to) and Matt and I both are very much a "work in progress" when it comes to our daily walk, but we do our best to share our faith in God with Colton (and Ryleigh, too) in hopes that he will ask questions and grow his own relationship with Him. It's the faith that has kept us going over the past several years. God has blessed our family and He has brought me so much peace and comfort in times that were very, very hard. I want my kids to feel that peace and comfort and to know that that it comes from God's love for them! My talks with Colton, involving God, started very early. As early as when he was in my belly, I would pray over him. Each night, when I was up feeding him, I would pray (out loud) over him. As he grew, I started saying prayers with him at meal times and at night. When Colton was finally able to put words together, he started saying his meal time prayers and then one night started thankin

At bedtime, I like to lay down with Colton for a few minutes. I started doing this when he moved to his "big boy bed". At first, I thought it was for him but I'm realizing that it's as much for me as for him. Last night Matt asked me "Why do you lay in there with him? He needs to learn to go to bed by himself.". While I 100% agree that he does need to learn to go to bed by himself, the answer to the question "why do you lay in there with him?" is because that's my Colton/Mommy time. Colton is so busy all day. He never stops moving, doesn't want to cuddle, doesn't want me to hold him and has very little time to stop and have a conversation with me. Not only is he busy, but now we have another baby in the mix so I'm busy. I'm feeding, pumping, changing a diaper, fixing lunch, putting somebody down for a nap, short on my patience or doing a million other things. At night, it's calm and we talk. I'm at peace with all my at

It's been two weeks since we came home with Miss Ryleigh. Adjusting to a family of four has (as much as I'm afraid to jinx myself) been easier than I anticipated. I guess I'm just really good at preparing myself for the worst, that way things don't seem so bad. The saying "every baby is different" couldn't be more true for my two babes. So far Ryleigh is a great eater (has no stomach/sensitivity issues that we can tell), loves to snuggle, self-pacifies easily and is sleeping about 4 hours at a time during the night. She recognizes Colton's voice and turns towards it whenever she hears him (which is a LOT)! She even gives a small smile when he gets close enough to her. I hope that continues as they get older. :-) I have always known that Colton has a sweet soul. Even though he is 100% boy, he's a very sensitive child and is extremely observant. It melts my heart to watch him with his sister. This morning, Ryleigh was crying in her room and Colto

On Tuesday, we welcomed our sweet baby girl, Ryleigh Michelle, into this crazy, beautiful world. I had so many emotions leading up to Tuesday and couldn't really find the right words to express them but as soon as I saw her perfect little face I knew that the biggest emotion of all was love! It all started at 4am on October 6th, when we checked into Takoma Regional Hospital. Part of my emotional confusion came with the fact that I had chosen to be induced again (which I swore after my experience with Colton I would NEVER do again. Just another lesson in "never say never" because you just never know). Anyway, here we were, checking in and getting ready for an amazing (all to familiar) experience. By the time we got up to labor/delivery, settled in my room, preliminary paperwork filled out and IV started, it was around 5:15am. I started thinking about my decision of being induced. Was this time different? Was it going to be easier? Shorter labor? What if it's longer