Our One Year Old...

Our dear sweet girl,

As of 2:08pm today you'll officially be one. I'm not sure where this entire year has gone. You're a perfect gift from heaven our dear girl. When I say I PRAISE God for you I verbally thank Him for you each and everyday. Your bring us so much joy! Even when you wake us up in the middle of the night we still find the joy. This year has been challenging and yet so very rewarding. We've learned so much about you, about each other, and us as parents. Each day you greet us with the biggest smile and giggles. Your joy is contagious and we've been so blessed to have such a happy baby girl.Your daddy and I have such hopes and dreams for you and we hope you know that those hopes and dreams will always been in your reach.

Thank you for making my dreams come true and making me a mommy. I may not be the perfect mommy but I certainly try to give you the best of me each and everyday. We are so thankful for you baby girl and love you with all of our hearts!

Looking Back at Your First Year

Birth Story

Newborn Session

First Christmas

On Being a Mommy

First Easter

Baby Dedication

Busy Summer!

We love you so much sweet girl, we couldn't be more grateful for you sweet disposition, open mouth kisses, and all the love you give! 

Mommy and Daddy

Caroline's Baby Dedication/First Mother's Day!

"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it". Proverbs 22:6

This past Sunday--Mother's Day--also happened to be Caroline's baby dedication day! We decided to have our home dedicated at my church that I grew up in. We believe that it is the child's decision to accept salvation and declare that profession of faith publicly by baptism when she decides. This was more a charge to us the parents that we will raise Caroline in a Christian home and lead her to the Lord.

Of course, 2 minutes before we were called to the front she spit up on her dress, isn't that how it always goes? So back on the bib went and we left it there for the remainder of the service. She was mesmerized by the pastors mustache and glasses.

After dedication mom and dad hosted a lunch at their house for our sweet families that were apart of her special day! My first mommy's day is one I will never forget!

Caroline Vance 11 Months Old

Next month you'll be one. Mommy and daddy can't talk about it much less think about it. We cannot believe how fast this year has gone by! This month you were busy busy. You crawl so incredibly fast no one can keep up with you. We sit you down and woosh you're gone. Normally to the dog's bowls (still) the stairs, or the 1/2 bath to pull everything out of the trashcan---gross but real life---or to pull all of the toilet paper off of the roll. We call you Captain Destructo, we were at Granna and Pop Pop's for all of 30 minute the other week before you had all the books of the shelves and the DVD's off the rack. Our house looks like a tornado ran through it on a daily basis, not sure why I even bother cleaning up. Mommy doesn't mind thought my OCD is learning to take a back seat and just roll with it. You decided to stand in the seat part of the shopping cart at Target. Yeah, there's that. We will never go without your shopping cart cover again.

You're the absolute sweetest thing ever. We tell you to give love and you lay your head down on our chest/shoulder. You do it to Kendall too--she's not impressed--. We are SPOILED by you. You rarely cry, you sleep all night an off night here and there. You normally take two good naps during the day except as of late your morning nap has been being all of 15 minutes.

We spent a week at the beach with the WooBaWa's! The Woods, Auntie Bay, and Nana and Pap, Aunt MeMe, Kinley, Uncle Josh, Aunite Bina, Jack, and Sam. It was a lot of people but so very much fun. You enjoyed crawling ALL over the beach and had absolutely zero fear of the ocean. After returning home from our week at the beach we celebrate Pop Pop's 70th birthday! He was truly surprised and enjoyed showing you off to everyone.

We've been working on self feeding this month you're getting the hang of it and enjoying feeding yourself your peas, chunks of sweet potato, banana, butternut squash, green beans, mango, and the list goes on. You also enjoyed part of your first Biscuitville biscuit.

Highlights:

-Weight--Guessing 18-19 pounds?
-Size 3 diapers
-9-12 month clothing, some 6-9 fits especially if it's Old Navy
-Saying: Hey (all the time) Bye Bye, Thank You, Doggggg--pointing to Kendall, Saying moo when asked what does the cow say? And finally ladies and gentlemen she has MA-MA.
-Standing, cruising, and sometimes if you're real brave you'll take a half step towards the Cheerios.
-Down to about 20 oz of Earth's Best Organic Formula.
-Eating everything! You love yogurt, turkey, peas, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans. We're slowly transitioning away from the puree's!
-You've claimed a favorite toy, we don't leave the house without Minnie Mouse. You love Minnie.

We're also not talking about what happens next month. I can't even think about you being you know what.

We love you sweet girl, but Jesus loves you more!

10 Months Old.

Holy Moly girlfriend, you are now 10 months old. You are so funny and clearly don't even know it. You have your daddy and I cracking up constantly. You're talking now! I can't believe it. Other than Da-Da you are saying HEY, TADA, Bye Bye, and UH-OH! You say hey to your granna each morning over FaceTime it's so cute. You're the sweetest baby and the happiest too! You really only cry when you're tired or frustrated. You're getting into everything these days we don't ever slow down. I leave you to play in the floor full of toys and I look over and you've dumped the dog's food on the floor. True story, happens on pretty regularly around here. Speaking of, you LOVE Kendall, you've been giving her so many hugs lately and it's the sweetest thing. You also gave her a big open mouth kiss and got a mouth full of dog hair, yuck we're working on that. As we snuggled last night I just laid there with you in my arms praising the Lord for your sweet soul. I've said to your daddy too many times how did we get so lucky? You are our biggest blessing and greatest joy little one. Our prayer is that you'll never go a day not knowing how loved and special you are. We couldn't be more grateful that the Lord chose us to be your parents! We love you but Jesus loves you more!

Month 10 Highlights

--Saying hey, bye bye, uh-oh, and TADA. 
--Eating 4 6 oz bottles of Earth's Best Organic formula
--Lots of table food and puree's still
--Feeding yourself cheerios, bananas, and puffs. Mommy needs to put on her brave face and let you do more. 
--Standing by yourself for a few brief seconds at a time
--Found the stairs, hello baby gates.
--You celebrated your first 4th of July!
--You're becoming quite the local celebrity at our Friday morning breakfast spot!
--You weigh 17lbs--I'm guessing, maybe a little more. 
--You're claiming favorite books and toys. 

Newborn size pjs vs 9 month size pjs! 

Mommy started planning your first birthday party this month, twinkle twinkle little star--we sing it every night so it couldn't be more fitting! 

We love you precious wonderful girl!

Thoughts on a Tuesday

Sunday morning our pastor spoke on Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.--I don't know about y'all but sometimes my thoughts aren't exactly excellent or praiseworthy. I really should have been wearing steel toe boots Sunday morning because my toes were getting stepped on a lot. 

As a new mom, I worry about everything. Absolutely everything. About myself not measuring up as a mom, something happening to Caroline, neglecting my relationship with Derik. I can easily think myself into a nervous breakdown. It's happened a few times. So Sunday morning I felt like the pastor was speaking right to me, no one else was in the sanctuary it was just me and the Holy Spirit. It was a one of those moments where I didn't feel that God was SHOUTING at me, but He was speaking to me in His quiet still voice. Your won't ever find peace if your mind and heart isn't with the Lord. I don't believe in coincidence, I believe in purpose. I know I was exactly where I was supposed to be Sunday morning. In the counseling world we have a technique called thought stopping. Thought stopping is labeling your thoughts, giving them a name, and replacing it. I decided Sunday morning that each time I have a negative, stressful thought, I'm going to replace it with Philippians 4:8. 

Since I'm no longer nursing, I'm getting back into a better eating routine and a different work out routine as well---breastfeeding worked it's magic in keeping the baby weight off--. So not only am I going to try to be physically healthy but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy as well. I want Caroline to grow up having the best version of her momma she can. I know some days are going to be harder than others, but here's to making anew and really challenging myself to be the best version of me I can be! 

Summer so far.

Dear Sarah,
The purpose behind this blog is so you will actually write about the events taking place in your doesn't slow down not even for a minute life. You really need to be better about updating!

-Now that the mental note is out of the way, how about a summer recap? We've been pretty busy the past couple of months! Since Memorial Day is the "official" kickoff to summer I'll start there! Memorial day was spent in Hickory with Derik's family! We hung out by the pool, ate a lot of yummy food, got to sleep in---thank you Nana---I even got to take a nap. That was absolutely glorious.

We also celebrated the wedding of Ben "The Real Deal" King and sweet Kayla. Friends are the family you choose and I'm thankful we've chose the group of people! We were missing a few but college would have not been the same without them!

The next weekend we spent at my parents house. Usually Caroline and I just day trip it there--it's only a 40 minute drive from our house--but often times we're so rushed so we decided just to spend the weekend there. Family time is always good for the soul!

We took Caroline to one of our favorite local spots Blue Ribbon. She enjoyed purreed peas. ;) 

Caroline learned how to take selfies. 

We then journeyed to West Virginia to see Derik's family that lives up there. His parents were the only ones to move away to North Carolina. We don't get up there as much as we'd like to. We really enjoyed our time. We ate a lot of food, spent the day on the river, and spent time with the people we don't get to see nearly enough! 

Then we hit the road again for Hickory to celebrate Kinley's 2nd birthday, Minnie Mouse style!

She is proof of God's grace and His faithfulness to those that love and wait on Him and His timing. My sweet sister in law had quite the time getting pregnant and Kinley is such a blessing!

We packed our bags again and headed to Charlotte for a few days! Derik had a conference so Caroline and I got to hang out with Auntie Bina, Jack, and Sam. We loved spending time with them! They are both so sweet to Caroline and dote all over her. It's the cutest thing. 

From Charlotte we went to my favorite place in the world: Ocean Isle! We got to spend a few days with my family. We ate way too much, I actually got to read (for fun), laid out on the beach, and again got to sleep in. Thanks Gammy! We played on the beach and Caroline was way more interested in eating the sand then anything else. At one point I looked up and she had a shovel of sand straight to the mouth. Holy Momma child. 

Here are the tricks Caroline has developed over the summer so far: 

Pulling up on everything. If it's not moving (sometimes it is moving) you pull up on it. You're going to give me a stroke. 

Kendall is such a patient dog with her. She just lets C do whatever, it's the cutest thing.