7 months & Elise's Tent

 Elise decided on Saturday that she was in the mood to make a tent.  We let her have free reign and she pretty much put anything she could reach throughout the whole house into her tent.  She told us it was "The Cave of Wonders" (Aladdin) and actually did get in there.  We're not sure how...

I am 7 months (and 4 days) pregnant today.  I didn't take the pic earlier this week because I thought we'd be taking maternity pics, but that hasn't panned out yet, so I went ahead and did it today.  I HATE the pic of me (fake smile, forgot to take the glasses off), but it was hard to get the model to cooperate, so this was what we went with. 

Stats for 7 months: 

• I am now seeing the OB every two weeks.  As of this past Thursday, I have 11 weeks until delivery!
• The OB still tells me at every appointment that the baby is measuring "big."  It's starting to get old... I can TELL she is big--just look at me!
• Erin is resting on my sciatic nerve and causing problems there--I've got to start getting up and walking more at work, or by the end of the day I am going to be crippled.  Sometimes that's hard to do, but I am going to have to make the time.
• I am slightly anemic, so I get to start taking iron pills.  Yippee.  But BP is still looking good (YAY!) and I still haven't experienced any swelling, so I need to thank God for that!
• Elise is really beginning to get excited about Erin.  Any time we buy Elise a new piece of clothing, she automatically asks what Erin got.  However, she's not too keen on giving her hand-me-downs to Erin...

Happy Easter!

Easter weekend was a great one for us!

Saturday evening, we got to decorate eggs with the Fosters and see MawMaw and PawPaw (Mommy failed to bring the camera, but hopefully Amanda will post a blog entry that I can link up to later). Sunday, we got all decked up and went to church with the Stevens family and 2 of the Lippys (missed you Brooke and Marty!). Sunday afternoon was a lovely drive to the Ackermans' home for family fun with the Jackson side for the family!

Elise spent the vast majority of her time playing on Landen and Lainey's swing set. We might have to look into one for her next summer. Too many projects on the burners for this summer since we're finishing the basement and having a baby :)

There were a ton of kids at the Ackerman house--they had a great time hunting eggs and there was definitely no shortage of them. However, getting a pic with all of them looking at the camera at the same time was literally impossible!

We hope everyone had an Easter as blessed as ours and we thank God for the ULTIMATE blessing in our risen Savior! Happy Easter!

Love & Marriage

Primarily, this blog is about my adorable daughter and my sweet still-baking daughter. I spend most of my time posting about goings-on relating to our lives as parents. But I wanted to take a moment today to focus on one of the main things, in my opinion, that makes us good parents: our marriage.

"In the enriching of marriage the big things are the little things. It is a constant appreciation for each other and a thoughtful demonstration of gratitude. It is the encouraging and helping of each other to grow. Marriage is a joint quest for the good, the beautiful, and the divine." --James L Faust

I created a board on pinterest not long ago devoted to “Love and Marriage”. I found this quote along with a blog about “11 Tips for a Marriage”. The blog was fine, but the quote was magnificent. For me, it summed up marriage in 4 easy-to-read sentences. Ever since I said “yes” to Sean, it’s been one of my major goals to constantly encourage not only my husband, but our marriage. I try to do this in a number of ways—little gifts for him when I know he’s having a crappy week, words of appreciation when he cooks a kick-a dinner or fixes something around the house, and yes, I will say it: putting out even when sometimes I don’t feel like it (we’re all friends here and you know how this is encouraging for a man!) Neither of us are terribly PDA-driven, so
even those that are the closest to us may wonder from time to time just how happy we are. Well, I can assure you, most of the time we’re VERY happy. We work HARD at being very happy. We nurture our marriage as much as we nurture our daughter. We have date nights (sometimes as simple as just playing scrabble together after Elise has gone to bed) and we also nurture our marriage by making sure that we each have an opportunity to have time to ourselves. And yes, I think that’s an important part of a good marriage. You have to be able to keep your own identity outside of your partner and your children (if you have them). Additionally, and probably most importantly, we nurture our marriage by turning to God together—in private times and with various church and bible study activities.

I will fully disclose: Sean and I have only been married 6 1/2 years. I am certainly no expert at marriage. But I do know that this is what works for us. We have gotten a lot of advice throughout the years from couples that we admire and we're fortunate to have many good role models for marriage in our lives. I even look to the movie "UP" for inspiration on how to have a good marriage!

I am so thankful to God for giving me Sean to walk with on this earth. And even if I don't often tell you out there in the blogosphere that often, I hope that he knows that.