A desire to change

Lately I've been desiring to be the best that I can possible be! I want to be the best Christian that I can be, the best Wife that I need to be, the best Mother that I can be, best Daughter, Grand-daughter, Sister, Friend, In-Law, and Artist that I can possible be! I want to live my life 100% and I want to show LOVE!!! I know that I can NOT do all of that to the fullest without Gods help! I've asked him to give me the encouragement and strength to do all that I do to the fullest.

Wayne has been preaching on "Sawdust". He says that as Christians, we can sometimes eat more sawdust than oats. This means that we get used to the things of the world and place them above God and learning his word. Man, did I feel like he was talking to ME! Before Capri was born I went to God for everything. I studied my Bible to deepen my relationship with him. The more I read and learned, the more I wanted to read and learn. My relationship with God was growing! Once Capri got here, I put her above my relationship with God. I put my role as a Wife and as a Mother before everything and everyone. Now I have to change! I want my love for God to be as before. I want to desire to study his word again. I want to desire to worship again. I want to desire to love everyone and to show Gods love to everyone again. But most of all, I desire to be the best that I can be through God! My prayer is that anyone who knows me or anyone that I may come in contact with will see Gods love in me!

photo by: a.nation

Half of a YEAR!!!

photo taken by: a.nation

Our little one is 6 months old today! I can not believe it!!!! And to just think that in 6 more months she will be 1 years old...WOW!! This is our latest pic of little Miss...turning half a year!

Our Anniversary

photo taken by: a.nation

Don and I got married on May 20, 2007, three years ago. Man how time flies, but then if I stop and think about everywhere we have lived...lol...it seems like a long time.
We got married at Patton Chapel, which is the beautiful brick chapel on UTC Campus. I was not a student there, but when I was a teenager I went to a wedding there and I always said from that moment on that I was gonna get married in that church...and we did! We then had the reception at the Chattanoogan Hotel downtown. My wedding was the dream wedding I had been wanting since I was a small girl!
After Don and I got married, I was still in school at Austin Peay in Clarksville, we lived with my grandparents for the summer while I worked at Drs. Dearmond and Jones and Don went through the Police Academy at Cleveland State. Once school started back for me, I lived with a friend in Clarksville for a couple of weeks until Don was finished with the Academy. We then got an apartment together with my college roomate and lived there for 8/9 months. And I must say, these apartments were great! We will never find another just like those! While I was going to school Don found a sercurity guard job and worked there until April. In April of 2008, Don moved back home so he could start his job at the Police Department in Athens. I finished up school and graduated in May '08 with a Bacholor of Fine Arts for Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN. I then moved back, along with all of our things, and we then lived with my parents for 3 months. At the first of August 2008, Don and I bought our first house, in Athens. This is where we currently live with a new addition....Capri!
Don and I have been married for 3 years and can't wait for all the others years to come, new additions that may follow and to see what God has instore for our lives!
I love you Don with all of my heart and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with such and amazing Husband as you! :) Thank you for all that you do and for being the best partner there is!

My little one

pic taken by: a.nation

Capri is now 5 months and two weeks old! My, how time has just flown by! This little girl is growing like a weed. She is now smiling, laughing out loud, rolling over to her belly and the back to her back, she picking up small objects and is eating cereal at dinner. WOW, what a big girl! :)
I never thought being a Mother would be so hard!!! Infact, at first I thought I was just thinking it was going to be so hard...but NO, it's true....it is HARD! And, I am a stay at home/work at home (when I get the business) Mom, which is even harder!!!! Being at home and working in the home sometimes gets me down. I see Don with this whole other life (well that's what it seems like) at work...with his friends and different responsibillites...and it makes me feel like I have no other life than Capri, Don, Me and our Household. And it is ruff! And to top it all off, I want to have more kids....so I know that it's only going to get worse. But, a friend of my said that Capri is still very little and I am still transitioning into be a Mommy! And she is so right!
But don't get me wrong...I love Capri with all my heart and soul, and I have not doubt in my mind that she was created by God and was in His plans for mine and Dons life. No DOUBT!!! Being a Mom is hard, but I couldn't imaging my life without her in it!

Earth Day

Here is our little girl on Earth Day! We celebrated Earth day by planting a red-bud tree in our yard. Last year we had our maple tree in our back yard to split all the way to the ground during a windy storm. We ended up having to have the tree cut down. So this year we decided to add another tree to the back yard! :D What a great way to enjoy mother earth and to thank God for what he has given us!

Growing up

Today Capri had her follow-up appointment with her G.I. Doctor. We have had such issues with her doctors. First it was her ped. so we changed, then it was her g.i. ped, so we changed again. This time we changed to a doctor in cleveland. (well he comes to his office in cleveland once a week.) His name is Dr. Laman. We LOVED him!!! Capri is doing great. He talked to us a little bit about when to start her on baby food. Cereal at 4 months, then baby food at 6. Start with vegtables first, doing one vegtable at a time to see if she has a reaction to any of them, then go to fruits. "Don't do fruits first because she may like the sweetness of them and not want to eat her veggies." Once she starts getting a little older we have to start reading labels. Avoid anything that has: milk, soy, caserin, and whey in them. Then at 18 months she will have a milk allergy test on her skin to make sure that she doesn't have an anafilactic reation to the milk. If she doesn't then we can introduce milk into her diet. If she then has a g.i. reation to milk, we have to wait until she is 2 to try again. But, he is hopeing that she'll grow out of the intolerance by the time she is 1. We're going to keep her on Prevacid once a day and then drop the dosses of Zantac to once a day at bed time. After about 3 weeks we can try and take her off the Zantac to see if there is much of a difference. So, that's the update on little Capri!

So I'm a little down

This post is more for myself, so I can get a few things off my chest.
I, as a mother, has decided to put Capri on a schedule. It is hard! In fact, I often doubt myself and even question my choice in doing so because it is so much WORK!!! Often, I go to others for advice, being Capri as my first child, I want to make sure that I am doing the best that I can. I know that each child is different and that what works for one may not work for the other. So I am on a mission to find out what works best for my little one! There is that someone that I, and as many others may know through their own experiences, go to the most! The one that you are the closest to. The one you know that will give you an answer because she has gone through the same things. The one that you feel most comfortable talking with. But, because I am not doing what she did, I feel a little frustration there and it brakes my heart! Frustration on my end because I want someone to help me and to tell me what I should try and what I should not do. And I want support in the decisions that I make. I feel frustration on her end because I am not doing what she did, so she can't relate to me in that way to help.
Now, I feel like I am on my own. Which I guess it is time for me to step up to the plate. Its time to stop asking for advice from everyone around me, and just do what I feel is the best for Capri. I just feel like the more I open my mouth about what I'm doing with Capri, the more I'm getting judged...by everyone! I am just down and in need of a great deal of encouragement.