Ode to my Sister

Anyone who knows me well, knows a piece of my heart is always with my sister. I don't have any friends closer than sister. I have always looked up to her. She shared her love of travel with me and so i love to travel now. She shared her love of the Lord with me, and so i love the Lord. She has shared a picture of a godly marriage with me and so i have referred many of our boundaries back to my sis's boundaries. I highly respect her and love her. i heart sister. And so.... these final days were precious to spend with her. Lars has left many times before to live other places for extended periods of time so i am used to her being gone. However, no departure of hers has torn me up quite like this one. I'm not sure if its because i just had a baby or because she is pregnant or because she now has a family she has taken with her also. It could be because she lived only 7 minutes away for the last year or because she invited me over for countless dinners, or because she left her baby and husband to fly home to be with me and my new baby, or because she cared for my baby 2 nights in a row so i could sleep. I don't know what it was Sis.....? But i miss you so much more then ever before. Love you lots sis.... xoxo

PS For monthes before Lars left, i had recurrent dreams of asking her to stay home. In my my dreams I cried out to her "Don't leave! I can't do it without you!" and in my dreams she always said.. "Ok. I won't go then." Haha and so Sister, that is why i never asked you not to go. Because i know South Asia is where the Lord has you and it would have been selfish for me to interfere. (Actually, i MAY have broken down and said "i dont know what i'll do without you" but i TRIED not to.)

Mommy dearest

These are just a couple of the really beautiful nighties that my mom gave
Baby J.


This is Josie in her seat. She was helping me make lunch for Andy one night :) and by helping i mean sleeping!




This is my sweet daddy holding baby. This is my favorite nightie and favorite picture of dad holding her.

Sister Sister

We have ALL kinds of sister love going on at our house these days! These are some pictures of everyday senarios that i encounter.

Lucy and Sugarlovin' like to wait at the door together to come in from the backyard. Lucy always waits for her elder to go first (so she can chase her).



They like to play hide and seek together. Usually they get in trouble for involving the dining room curtains, but this WAS pretty funny so i let it slide.



Speaking of sisters... i miss mine dearly! More on that to come.

Baby Daddy

Just thought i would post a few pics of hubby with his little girl. They are soooo sweet together. Plus i have a hot baby daddy!





Look at those faces! Thats what i wake up to every day! Luckkkkyyyy!

B for Bishop

My sister bought us this meat brand a while ago and we just got to use it the other night. Coolest thing ever!



So, yeah thats right... we now brand all our burgers with the family initial. Whhhaaatt....????? We are just cool like that.

The Hat

My sis bought this awesome hat from etsy! This is a preview. She is going to take some pictures of Baby J in the hat. But i just had to take a few right away when it came in the mail!!

Baby Josie is here!!!

First famiy photo!



Before:


After:


The birth went fabulous! We got to the hospital to be induced at 6 am on August 30th (one day before my due date). I had been 2 cm dilated and thinned for a couple of weeks. I had also been having contractions all week. That morning was no exception. I was having contractions already and as they got us back in our room and were taking some blood, my contractions got stronger. We got my IV(which was kinna rough) and at 7 Dr. Peeler came in and broke my water before he headed off to do some surgeries. He checked me and i was still 2cm like the weeks before. At about 7:15 a lady came in to start me on Pitocin. I had about 2 contractions and i decided to get an epidural before i got in too much pain. The first time we tried something wasnt right so we had to start over. A little painful but really not bad at all. So the im all set up and i start feeling kind of nauseus. The nurse comes in with some meds for the nausea and she mentions that sometimes feeling sick means you are dilating quickly. So she checks me at about 8:30 and im now 8cm!! Woo hoo! so then she starts talking about how we have to wait til closer to when Dr. Peeler can get back to push and all that. So around 9:30 she says ok we are gonna start pushing at 10. And i said oh well am i 10cm yet? She was like oh yeah girl your cervix is gone! At this point everything had been ridiculously easy. Almost no pain at all! Andy and i were all smiles and excited and lovey dovey at the thought of our first baby being born. So we start pushing around 10 and we push and relax and push and take breaks. Nothing hurt at all. It was a little tiring but mostly just fun and exciting. So around 10:30 my mom came to join in (since everything was going so easy) and the nurse was having me wait until the Dr got back to push any more. Dr. Peeler came in at about 10:40 and we started pushing again. Baby Josie was born at 10:55 am. The whole thing was about 4 hours. It was the best experience i could have ever asked for. Andy and i felt sooo blessed. Josie came out perfectly pink and screaming. She was very loud and very alert (2 good things). She scored a 9.9 on the Apgar score (no one gets a 10). She was perfect and very cute right from the start. It was a wonderful day! I highly recomend giving birth at Methodist Germantown and Dr. Peeler was a fabulous doctor. All the nurses were soooo sweet. LOVED IT!