Sister & Seahorse

Dear Seahorse,

We don' know anything about you yet except you look like a seahorse, you have a really strong heartbeat, you like to eat chicken salad and Triscuits, you don't like the smell of ANYTHING and you are 9 weeks old right now... Your big sister calls you seahorse because of what you look like in your first picture. I have dreams of holding you all the time. When your daddy heard your heart beat for the first time he almost cried. Fancy and I bought you your first outfit in Fairhope this past week. It's a white jumper with three little buttons and a collar. it's made of a woven knit and it will look amazing on you. I can't wait to see you in it. Something about holding up clothing that small again just made my heart melt. I saw a picture of a mom nursing this baby in one of those useless pamphlets you get at the doctors office, the ones that give you a checklist of things you totally disregard once you become a parent, it all sounds great til you are at home by yourself for a split second and so tired you can't remember if you are still holding the baby or imagining it... 1.Your not going to be the perfect mom 2.Take time to take care of yourself 3. Get as much rest as you can 4.Accept help that others offer 5. Trust you developing parental instincts...anyway, the picture made me smile and then I remembered how awesome and yet how exhausting breast feeding can be. It's totally worth it though, I will do so many things different with you than I did with Kehnley. I didn't savor so many of the moments I had with her, even though the words of all those wiser and seasoned kept ringing in my ear 'it goes so fast' I kept going along as if it was going to be that way forever.

No, this time will be different, well it will have to be because you have a very busy and fun loving sister i have to keep up with... but I am going to be so much more careful of the time I have you in my arms. I can't wait! In the mean time, could you go easy on the nausea... it's getting kind of hard to function! And thanks for letting me keep my morning workouts, I feel most tired at night and can still get moving really early, lets try and keep it that way, okay?

Love you,

keep growing strong in there!

A Different Kind of Guest Book

Kehnley turned two last weekend and we were so amazed at how many friends and family were so willing to spend the day celebrating with us. We had a party for her in the morning and another for her in the evening. The morning was a pool party and a lot of our family and friends who had little ones came, and And & Terry of course because they are awesome! Then we had just extended family and close family friends come in the afternoon time. Luckily Kehnley had a good nap, but she was still overwhelmed by all the people. I know she had a blast though. Her favorite parts were of course the water because she wouldn't stop talking about it, and the balloons because she is STILL dragging them around even after they are deflated!


We decide to let our chalkboard walls in the Kitchen be our guest book and I am so glad we did, it was really fun to come back from the trip and see all the messages to our sweet baby on there. I took a pic of it for her memory box.

Here is what our kitchen USED to look like...

isn't it SO much better now?! Side note: If anyone wants to paint chalkboard paint or magnetic, we did both it takes 4 coats of magnetic and 2 of the chalkboard (at least! it may take three if you don't do magnetic).

I hope she loves her guest book as much as we did. My favorite was Jen and Cody's "it's been a great two years" lol.

It has been a great two years, this little darling has completely turned our lives upside down and it's so clear that it was all mixed up before you Kehnley. Bry and I hadn't been made fully alive til you. We are better people; more loving, more daring, more patient, more fearless, more kind, more fun, more hopeful and thankful than ever because of God's gift to us through you. You are one of a kind and it's been life changing to be your momma & dadda these past two years. I will never forget the moment I held you for the first time, so much wonder and fear and love and doubt all at once. We learned a lot those first few weeks; we cried a lot, we made mistakes and we got better, we have come such a long way and it's exciting to know that it's only the beginning. You have taught me God's sovereignty like no one else I know... I have a stronger trust in the things unseen because of your sweet presence in my life. I never knew someone so small could make such a huge impact in a persons life... in just a short time you have spoken volumes, even when you couldn't say a word, you were speaking to my heart. One of the most breath taking moments recently was when we were looking at pictures together and there was an image of Jesus on the cross at the bottom of the page, it was a rouged view of Christ as the storm clouds were gathering red behind his lifeless body. I was thinking i needed to quickly close the file because I didn't know if your eyes were ready to see that kind of image, you had only seen the blue eyed Jesus in the fields with sheep around Him shepherding his beloved! Nothing as gruesome as the cross had even been shown to you yet...but before I could close the screen out you pointed at the very image i was trying to avoid and said His name for the first time "Jesus!" It took my breath away, how did you know that was Jesus? I thought. You had never seen Him there on the cross before... the only explanation for it all on that quiet morning is God was teaching me that He had shown Himself to you in His way and in His time. I found comfort knowing it wouldn't be the last... Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

I am going to post more pics as I get them finished but here are our favorites for now...

I had a dream... and no I am not MLK

Friday night we went out bowling with Lyndz and Thomas and that night we got in pretty late after getting Kehnley. Bry woke up early that morning to go to the deer lease with his dad. Just your monthly trip we are getting used to in the Blowey house hold. Anyway, I am going to try and make this as short as possible, I know how distracting it can be to read long posts :)

I had a dream and i was laying in bed sort of waking up Saturday morning and trying to process the dream and I suddenly realized what all had just transpired... my rents had bought a new house and I remember all the details to a tee! There seamed to be a group of people over and I notice that my dad was holding a baby boy. I saw the baby's face, his hair was strawberry blond, he was smiling and he had his eyes shut, he was wrapped like a cocoon and looked so peaceful. In the dream Bry and I were telling the story of how we had given him a bath earlier and had the water too hot, amateur mistake for pro parents like us! Someone there asked "what's his name". And as I was waking up I heard the words "Caden and Kehnley... that's so cute!"



I couldn't believe it... that is the name Bryson and I have had wanted to name our son for years! The dream didn't feel like just any dream...it felt prophetic... it felt like God was telling me something. So I got out of bed, rushed to the bathroom to just see if there was a pregnancy test, I wasn't going go buy one...those things are expensive! Anyway, I found one in the drawer in my bathroom someone had given me a long time ago... i took it.... then Kehnley woke up and I went to go change her diaper,get her breakfast and got caught up in the rest of the morning. When i went back into the bathroom to get my bathing suit i noticed the test sitting on the counter, OH YEAH! I forgot all about it! I walked over and read it, "pregnant!" I started crying and thanked God for another sweet baby. I couldn't believe it, we have been praying for a baby for some time now but God's timing is perfect as usual!! I wouldn't be surprised either if it wasn't a boy! :) We will just have to wait and see, boy or girl... it's the most wonderful thing that could have happened right now! I bought this shirt the next day! I can't WAIT to rock the belly in it!

In case you are wondering, Bry came back by lunch time and we went swimming at my rents I surprised him by having Kehnley wear this shirt.... he didn't read it at first but was "so excited" after he figured it out....he kept saying it over and over again. The rest of the family was just as surprised and excited too! I thought my mom was going to cry. Kehnley doesn't know what it means for everyone to look at her with big grins and say these words "big sister" but she just smiles back blissfully unaware :)