Rain day!

I love this rain day we are getting! Gives me a great excuse to stay inside, play with Ty, listen to Christmas music, look at the Christmas tree lights and make yummy soup!! And anticipate the rain turning to snow tonight! Can't wait to see if we get lots of snow. Hopefully tomorrow I can blog about Ty's 1st time to play in the snow!!!!

Weaning, a process for Ty and for me.

I know it's all in the never ending process of letting go of your children when you are a mom. But today my heart is sad, I've started a process of weaning Ty from breastfeeding, with the goal of him being completely weaned by a month from now. He still longs to breastfeed and I never realized it until now, but it has become such a part of me over the last year and such an intimate bonding moment with my little boy that it breaks my heart to let it go. My desire to breastfeed started because of all the health benefits, and not to mention the money we would save on formula. And over the last 12 1/2 months, it's become so much more. I know it's a part of life and the next step in raising up a man to follow after God's heart, but this mama's heart longs to hold on tightly to those moments. And oh how I will miss the need he has for me, a need that only I can fill. It has been the most special experience of my life.

And while freedom will come for me with weaning, at the moment, the sadness that I feel seems to over power that selfish freedom that will come.

I know it will get easier. And as a mom, I want it, I want my baby boy to have independence and confidence and courage and this is a stepping stone to get there. But for now, for today, for this moment in time, I'll be a little sad to let my little baby grow up.

Lord, give me strength, confidence and assurance of who I am in You. Show me new ways to love on my little boy and ways to bond and connect with him as he grows and matures and becomes more independent of me and more dependent on You. And thank you for blessing my life with Ty.

Vacation in Maine - Day 8 (travel)

Well, it's officially over. So sad. Why do vacations have to end? There's something very comforting about coming HOME, but the relaxing and break from life is SO nice!

This vacation was a blast! Not a ton of activities to do, lots of relaxing and site-seeing, no time schedule, making it perfect for our family at this time in our lives. With Ty being 10 months old, it was perfect because I'm still breastfeeding and he's eating baby food, so we didn't have to pay for him to eat (good thing because food was crazy expensive there!). And he flew free so it was a good time to fly somewhere farther away. And the climate was just right to have a baby out in. We had such a fun time together as a family. Family time is so important to us and is something we feel like we don't get near enough of. This was the first time Josh has gotten to spend 8 full days straight with Ty, we were so thankful for that.

To be cautious of any creepy internet blog stalkers out there, I chose not to show our hotel or give the name or show our car or anything. But now that we are home, I wanted to tell you incase any of you are wanting information on where to stay in Maine!

We stayed in Saco, ME at the Hampton Inn. It was a great deal! Such incredible service, a really nice breakfast each morning, heated outdoor pool, cookies each afternoon, workout room, laundry room, clean rooms, we were very impressed! All the sites we wanted to see were anywhere from 10-40 min from our hotel, other than Boston, which was 1 1/2-2 hours away. We had a rental car from Budget, the car was great, really nice, only downfall, we had to pay $65 for an infant seat at the end of the week. ouch.

Since our flight didn't leave until 5:30pm, we stayed in the hotel all morning, and then headed to the mall to just hang out. There we found a Carousel! Had to give Ty his first ride!!!

The flight to Chicago went well, after about 30 min. Ty fell asleep. The flight from Chicago to Wichita was a little different. He wasn't fussy, but he was VERY squirmy! We were worn out from trying to refrain him from getting down to crawl and sitting still is just not something Ty does well unless it's within the first 5 min. after a nap! So it was a struggle, finally with about 30 min left in the flight he relaxed and fell asleep.

Flying in and out of Chicago we took the opportunity to take pictures of the city, in hopes we would see Uncle Brett, Aunt Kavia and Cousin Micaela!! We didn't spot them, but it was sure fun to think of them somewhere down there! It looked like a great city I'm sure they will love it.

We landed about 10:10pm, which is an hour early than Eastern time. So today, we are sleepy, and Josh headed into work and we are busy doing laundry, cleaning, unpacking, and trying to regroup and get organized after a vacation here at home!

Vacations are the BEST!

Vacation in Maine - Day 7

Another cool, overcast day, but no rain!! So we set out to do all the things we had left on our list to do, since it's our last day today. :(

Lunch at The Clam Shack, and ate their famous lobster rolls! Ty got carrots, with cheerios for dessert. :)

Then back to Nubble Lighthouse, this time we remembered our camera! And got lots of fun pictures. See below.

Then we had to get some yummy ice cream at a shop there near the lighthouse. It started to get a little chilly so we ate in the car and you will see Ty LOVED his car seat this week. Well, I should say, he loved standing it in and crawling up it, and did NOT love getting strapped in once he realized he could stand and face the front! See the view from the outdoor restaurant...

After that, more sight-seeing!

Oh and a few pictures from our swimming we did yesterday evening, the heated pool was delightful!

Do we really have to leave tomorrow? :(

Vacation in Maine - Day 6

Today is Sunday and last night we spent some time searching the internet to find a church to go to this morning that shares our vision for church so that we can participate in worship and also hopefully take away some ideas for our own church! We found a church called The Rock Church and gave it a try.

We found out that the man who started The Rock Churches has a goal of putting a church in every county in Maine, and this particular location has 2 services and is getting ready to move into their bigger location in July. The worship was very spirit lead and we thoroughly enjoyed the music and participating in the corporate worship with others in the congregation. We found it very easy to enter into the presence of God and loved how outreach focused the entire worship service was. We were greeted at the door by several people as well as many more approaching us after we were in the sanctuary. The message was extremely applicable, very bible focused and we got so much out of it.

During the service I had to take Ty into the "Cry Room" off the back of the sanctuary. It was there I got to snap a shot through the window during the prayer so you could see the inside of the sanctuary during a prayer. :) So sneaky!!

As a side note: I never realized until Ty was born how nice "Cry Room's" or "Nursing Mother's Room" are in churches! They provide a room that is quiet and private for mom's to nurse, change diapers, or rock their baby, while still watching the service on a tv, or through a window or listen to it over a sound system. This Nursing room was great, it had 2 rockers, pack and play, bouncer, a few toys and a changing table. And their changing table just proves how much they are thinking of moms...it had a basket with several diapers of a variety of sizes, another basket with breast pads, ziploc bags, wipes and disinfecting wipes. I loved it! I was able to go in there with Ty and give him a place to crawl around, change his diaper and feed him and not feel like I had to take him to a nursery with people I didn't know and I didn't have to miss out of the service! I never even thought of things like this 10 months ago! Speaking of....Today Ty is 10 months old, time is flying by. He is doing all sorts of fun tricks this week, he's now waving all the time, pointing, and even took a couple steps for daddy! :)

After lunch we headed to do some shopping, because the rain was still coming down....yup 2 days in a row. :( We saw a Christmas Tree store and so of course I couldn't pass it up!!!

Only, it was a HUGE disappointment, no Christmas trees, no santa claus, no jingle bells, no ornaments, no lights, nothing.

Then, ah but then, on our way out, we found a Christmas tree! :) Or so I like to say we did....

On the way out I double checked the signs on the building, yup, that's the word "Christmas" and the color red and a sleigh, hmmm.

Of course we had to make a stop at Cabelas for Josh!

Sure am hoping the rain lets up tomorrow so we can do the last things we wanted to do before we have to leave!