EWOW- In the Morning

I'm starting a new thing... Well sorta! Some of my best friends from Iowa State, Ada, Cass, and Brit and I started this last fall. We have all scattered across the country and world so to do a better job of keeping in contact and encouraging each other, we came up with a weekly email called an EWOW (Encouraging Words of the Week) I'm now bringing it to the blog world. So here's the first one!

IN THE MORNING

A little over a week ago, I got an email from my friend Jamie saying she wants to start a 5 o'clock club. Which basically means knowing that other ladies are getting up at 5 am to start their day with Jesus. Free of distractions from kiddos, and day to day grind "stuff". I loved this idea, but with Zander getting up sometime in the 5 oclock range I thought, I'll just stay up whenever he get's up in that range. After the first day of doing this, I was reading in Psalms and came across a couple verses with the phase "in the morning" in them. AHA! For those of you that know me I LOVE topical studies! So I did one on the phase "in the morning" In the ESV that phase is used 100 times, and I read every one of those, and found out 33 out of 100 times "in the morning" is referring to spending time or worshiping God in the morning!

I have been both encouraged and challenged by this as each morning God feeds my soul during this time. I get my cup o' joe, colored pencils, and am satisfied IN HIM!

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Psalm 90:14

So if you desire to spend more time with God come join me in the morning... whether it's at 5 am, or 7am, whatever works for you! Afterall Jesus liked mornings too, by the sounds of it, he was more of a 5 o'clock guy!

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

Mark 1:35

Colorado

The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory. Psalm 97:5-6


One of my dearest High School friends, Erin (beautiful blond pictured in the middle) got married in Colorado Springs last weekend. We wouldn't have missed it! Andy sang Angel, by Jack Johnson during the ceremony, and I read scripture. The outdoor wedding was absolutely gorgeous, with the mountains in the background. Although both Andy and I love Colorado it was the friends that made it so wonderful. Although we are all very different, and live in different places, these girls will always mean so much to me! (and it's always a blast reminiscing about those good ol' St. Ansgar days!

At the rehearsal dinner: Mandy Merten, Amy Ask, Erin Tjaden, me, and Brianne Fossey

me, Amy Ask, Tina May, Erin Tjaden, Mandy Merten, Brianne Fossey, Kristy Bonestro

We accepted Seth into the group!

Everything about the wedding was fabulous! From the ceremony, to the cocktails, to the amazing meal, and the dance!

Oh yeah, this is our 7th wedding of the summer. Zanders 4th already, and we squeezed that tie outfit on for one last time. (for real this time!)

We stayed at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort, which was incredible! Here's the view from the pool!

My mom, SUPER BABYSITTER, was so great to have there! The brides mom and her are great friends as well. We bonded :) I really enjoyed our car trip out there listening to "sleeping freshmen never lie" a lighthearted book on CD, ate never ending snacks, listened to Tyrone Wells, ate more snacks, stopped and enjoyed Lasso Espresso, and finished the trip with snacks!

We made great use of our time while there. Enjoying the mountains and being together!

We drove up to Pikes Pike. As you can see from this picture, 14,000 ft. Just so you all know, think twice before taking your 2 month old this high. I felt like such a bad mom. I didn't think about this until after we were up there, and I started breathing heavy, I thought Zander might have a hard time breathing as well. Poor buddy :( All of a sudden I was like "Andy we have got to get DOWN, ASAP! " There's only been a couple times when I have been worried about Zander, this was one of them. It was bitter-sweet. Beautiful to be up there, but then realizing I may have put our sweet boy in danger made me sick. Again, I'm glad my mom was there! He made it! But I won't ever do that again with him!

Amy, Bri, Tina, and I enjoyed a great short and Sweet hike one day.

Baby Bjorn rocked for this! But I'm glad Andy was carrying him!

The Last day, we drove west of Denver to go white water rafting! I have never gone before, but Andy has gone once. We did the intermediate course, and it was a great mix of beautiful scenery, and intense rapids (to me anyway!) Again, HUGE thanks to my mom, we wouldn't have been able to go without her!

Here it comes! ahhhhhhhhhh! (Andy is front right, and I'm directly behind him)

AHHHHHhh, there I go! Andy is still looking strong though! or wait... that's his foot sticking up next to the raft! The professionals stayed on. I had no chance, and I think Andy either felt bad for me, or just wanted to get wet!

All in all, it was a great vacation! If I haven't said it yet, it was so great to have my mom there! God's creation is beautiful! And Zander was being his usual self. Very difficult as you can see from this picture! I love him SOooooo much!

BIG updates!

So..... Update on Zander

Relating to my last post... He had his 2 month check up last week... and Yes, I knew it, he is a BIG BOY! 15 lbs, 25 1/2 inches long put him in the 95 % Has anyone ever heard of a baby being in the 100%. Hmmmm. Let me know, I would be interested in seeing those figures! He has a little head though- That's in the 50%... Andy has always told me I have a pin head so I guess Zanders taking after me. Take a look for yourself. What cha think?

Same cute little chubby nose for sure!!!!!

BIG PARTY!
For those of you who don't know much about my family. They love to party and get together. They would camp and travel every weekend in the summer if possible. Well a couple weeks ago we had a BIG family gathering. All my Grandma's brothers and sisters had a family reunion at my uncles farm. About 175 people were there. And we had a killer pot-luck!
It was a great time. With a pasture walk in the morning, (sorta like a 5K), horseshoes, bean bags, some hammer game, frisbee, tubing, and my favorite PASTURE GOLF! It was a best shot tournament so me and my sis Katie took on Andy, and Katie's husband, Jason. Honestly I didn't think we had a chance, but when I shot terrible, katie came through and vise versa. It was amazing! WE WON! I didn't rub it in to Andy at all I promise :) Too bad we didn't get a picture but here's a shot of the pasture walk. We even took Zander. Eventually the cow patties came off his stroller wheels :)

BIG VEHICLES!

I know you all have been dying to find out about the mini-van.

• Well it goes way back. Something about minivans have always been attractive to me. I love that they are functional but yet aren't gas hogs. So I've been telling some of my close friends since college that my dream car was a mini-van. Andy's mom and dad always knew this too, because I would tell them I was jealous of them because they had a minivan.
• I didn't care if other people thought it was dorky, old lady-like, or for soccer moms. I wanted one and my dream finally came true.
• Andy's mom and dad were wanting to get a mid-sized car and trade in their old mini-van, but they thought they would ask us first if we would be interested.. OF COURSE! They gave us a great deal and we got rid of our no airconditioned, low-riding, torn leather seats, no radio lights, blown out speakers of a car and are now proud owners of our first mini-van!

This is my mom (Betty Boop) with Andy and Zander on the way to Colorado. I still have yet to get a picture with me and the van. Maybe I can ask Andy if he'll do a photo shoot with us tonight :)

Reality Check!

Reality Number One:

Our baby is going to be BIG! Like we didn't assume this before, but reality is setting in this week. Rolls are developing in places we can't imagine, which makes areas a little harder to clean. Anna Kampman who was born almost 2 1/2 months before Zander weighed more than him at birth, but now they are almost the same size! He turns 2 months next week, but is wearing clothes that are 3-6 months, even some 6-9 month clothes! I'm so curious to see how much he will weigh at his 2 month appointment and see how long he is. This reality is double-sided. Most moms want to make sure there baby is thriving in the growth department. I do want this, however, I can't help but imagine Zander in his Junior High years already. I remember what it was like to be the "biggest" in the class. Both Andy and I had the nickname "Amazon" I'm already imagining having the talks with Zander about the "Bullies" at school calling him names, and him leaving a mall all upset because no clothes will fit him right... But maybe it's just us big girls that get upset with that stuff?!? So I hope Zander falls in love 20-30 years from now with another "Amazon" like me :) Until then, he's Daddy's little man. And he has BIG shoes to fill!

Be aware- x rated picture..... (but it shows some of those rolls I was talking about!)

Reality Number two:
I've always been a little scatter brained but whoa, I took it to another level. I don't know if it's hormones, or being a stay at home mom or what it is. But I swear I have about 5 different To Do lists around the house, and I don't know if I get to any of them during the day. You know what it's like to say I'm going to do the laundry, well on your way to get the laundry, you notice a book that's laying out so you pick it up to put that away, but it catches your eye, so you open it up and start reading it, well as your reading it, you can't go any further until you get a cup of coffee, so you go make some coffee, as you are making coffee you realize that you should do the dishes, then you finally get your cup of coffee and realize you don't have any coffee cream so you go to the store, and on your way out the door you realized you haven't even started laundry yet.... well yeah, that's the story of my time when Zander is napping. I think I will get to this to-do list today and then the cycle starts again... Whoa, any suggestions on how to solve this problem?

Reality Number Three:

Babies that are used to nursing prefer that over bottles. We have been trying to give Zander a bottle pry everyother day or so. Somedays it's rough going! Especially if I'm close by. (They are smarter than I thought :) ) We're working on it! and we learned that a bib is neccessary!

Reality Number Four:

I don't know what's going on! I think I got things figured out. As far as naps, sleeping, feeding, and stuff, but then... whopps, guess not! Although, I've been trying to figure this out (and I won't give up!) but I realize it does NO GOOD, getting worked up over it! Sometimes things just don't go as planned. For example this morning.... Usually, I go to playgroup on Tuesday mornings at Missy Isbells at 10. Well we are trading our car in for.. dun dun dun.... a MINIVAN!!!! (more on this later bc this topic will be an entire post! Anyway... we washed our car yesterday and Andy said if it is raining tomorrow don't take it out... Well what do you know, it's been raining ALL day here. So Z and I are just hanging out, usually he takes a nap in the morning, but not this morning because I think his poor little tummy had to be bothering him. When I was feeding him, I heard this big juicy you know what, and next thing I knew, YEP, all over his clothes! How does this happen. Will some company please invent a diaper that does not allow this?!?! Thanks to Erin Thomas who gave me Fels-Naptha (get it at Hy-Vee I guess) it seriously does wonders! and has gotten out all of his stains! Anway... do you see where my reality number 2 is coming in.. scatter brained! I was talking about no knowing what's going on, on a day to day basis! Kinda like this picture is he yawning, crying, gagging, trying to sing a high note....???? WHO KNOWS!!!!

Reality Number Five:

I COULD NOT DO THIS ALONE! There has been a couple times when Andy get's home from work that he leaves shortly after to go play guitar with some of his buddies, or with the band from Grace. These days are super hard for me. I told Andy it reminds me of Parent Teacher conferences! I work all day teaching at school, then I turn around and have PT conferences all night. This is what most teachers dislike about their job. It's a super long day with no breaks, and you just have to turn around the next morning and do it all over again! That's how I feel on the nights when Andy isn't around. It has made me appreciate the times he is here though, and how thankful I am to have a husband who loves to be involved in raising our little man!or according to reality number 1 "Big" man... (see the rolls!) :)

I write this post in complete humility and transparency... Sometimes life isn't always a day at the beach.. sometimes it's staying home on a raining day! But there's always something to look forward to like tomorrow... I get my minivan!

The Last 2 Weeks!

• Love is in the air! Andy and I celebrated our 4th year anniversary on June 25th! Baumhovers offered to babysit Zander while we had a great night together. We ate at Tuscan Moon in Kalona! Amazing! Then went to this small town ice cream shop. Then ended the night at the Java House where we brought back some memories by looking at some old cards/letters that we wrote each other while dating and in the last 4 years of marriage. It was a great night, and we heard Zander behaved himself!
• Play dates! (Not sure why the picture of Dax and Zander is sideways?) Anyway, Zander has been much more alert lately which mates play dates more fun. We are really blessed to know so many moms around Iowa City to get together with. Last week, was a special treat because my sis, Katie, came with to our Wed. playdate which was really fun. We also got to meet Will (picture below) They will for sure be friends. Both boys and he is only 3 weeks older than Zander.
• WEDDINGS! Our last of 3 weddings in a row was last weekend! Each wedding Zander wore the same outfit and with each week he filled it out more and more! I have a feeling last weekend was the last one with our $4 tie outfit :(
• Big YAWNS!
  Getting STRONGER! It's been great to see how Zanders neck is getting stronger! He can hold his head up much better this last week. It won't be long till he'll be watching the Bears play with Daddy, raising his arms yelling TOUCHDOWN!
  
  
• SMILES! Zander is smiling more and more every day!
  Working on a Schedule- I've been trying to figure out what kind of schedule would be best for Zander as far as wakeup/bedtime/naps etc. Since he is consistently sleeping 7-9 hours. (Praise God for this, I do know how fortunate we are for this!) But his nap times are very inconsistent. So I've been waking him up between 8:15-8:45 everyday to try and figure this out. Here he is getting woke up. Grunts and Toots! Hilarious!
  
  
• Once again here's our online Picasa Album for all the pics from last two weeks!
• http://picasaweb.google.com/mrsbishop/ZanderWeek4And5#