Mother's Day

Two!

Great Grandma B

Grandma and the girls

Four generations

Grandma Hoo Hoo (my grandma Joan)

My two most precious little girls - amazing

The Mother's Day after I miscarried our first pregnancy, my heart was heavy wondering if I would have the priviledge of being a mother. Up until that point I had understood very little about the longing that a woman knows if she desires to be a mother and cannot be. That year I had a glimpse into that sorrow.

I was in LA for a cross-cultural counseling class where we attended church Sunday morning at FAME (First African Methodist Episcopal Church). A beautiful message was preached about the mothering qualities of God reflected in a woman that are epressed in a multitude of ways by all women, whether or not you have biological children. After the service, I was warmly greeted by men and women of all ages who hugged me and said, "Happy Mother's Day." Each and every woman was. It was beautiful. God's loving kindness expressed to me once more.

It has been three years and I know that this gift of two beautiful girls is very precious. I think about that day every Mother's Day, knowing that my life is richer for having experienced it. Reminded also of the ways that we as women can "mother" in so many ways and to so many people in our lives.

Aunt Aly and Grandma Julie

Aunt Aly and Grandma Julie came to visit for a couple of days after Natalie was born. They took Noelle to do some fun things which gave me some good time alone with Natalie. It was really nice to have some time with them and I was surprised that I felt coherent and able to actually enjoy visiting. Thanks for visiting you two!

Ryan has been such a huge help. This first week has gone really smoothly. I couldn't imagine if I was on my own. Noelle and Ryan have adventured all around town. It's amazing how much calmer we are with a second baby but of course you have the challenge of a toddler in the mix that keeps you on your toes :).

Baby Natalie and Big Sister (3 days old)

SHE'S HERE!

Natalie Kelly McCarty
Born at Hoag Hospital Newport Beach
9:10 am
7.7 lbs
20 inches

We are so overjoyed at her arrival and love having her here in our arms. The labor and delivery really could not have gone better. Our thanks to God after concern along the way. The nurse actually commented, "your body was made to do this" which was so nice after months of thinking the opposite.

Natalie is just the sweetest little thing and has been doing excellent. I'm feeling really good, just tired of course :). Noelle is so excited about baby sister.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support! She's a beautiful gift from God.

Here are the pictures many of you have been waiting for!

Noelle's "New New Room"

We decided to move Noelle into a new room and put baby sister in her old room, using all of the baby stuff. Noelle's not ready (or at least I'm not) to move into her big girl bed yet so we moved the crib into the room and baby sister will sleep in a bassinet for a while. Noelle really likes her new room so I thought I would show you all some pictures of it.

Not yet...

I didn't want anyone to think that we had forgotten to contact you about the baby being born. She just hasn't come yet. With all of the contractions that I had throughout the pregnancy there was concern of her coming early but it is obvious now that they were not something to worry about. Even though they are still coming frequently and much stronger now, they are not putting me into labor. I am now less than a week from my due date. We'll keep you all posted! We can't wait to meet her!

Our Big Two Year Old

Below is Noelle doing a pose, which she says, "Oooh, that's tricky tricky."
Each stage is so fun. Recently her little imagination is beginning to work and play is taking on new forms. She loves to sing. In this video, she came up to my computer chair and began singing like this. At first I wondered what she was doing, was it a complaint or a silly noise... Oh, she's singing! I had to grab the camera fast and catch this. Well, at least she comes by her singing talent honestly.



A funny story:
A couple days ago my mom was watching Noelle and was trying to get her to eat some lunch. This child has also inherited our sweet tooth and has obviously recognized what has sugar in it. This is how their conversation went:

Noelle: "Need Jelly (Gelly) Beans"
Mom: "You can't have jelly beans until you eat some of your lunch."
My mom opens one of her cupboards and Noelle sees a container of Andes Mints.
Noelle: "Hooray, Hooray, you found ca-co-let!"
Mom: "Noelle, you can't have any chocolate until you eat some lunch."
Noelle: Begins to whine and get sad, "You need a vitamin"
Mom: I don't have any vitamins.
Noelle: "You need Tylenol"
Mom: "I don't have any tylenol"
Noelle: "You need mommy" - by now very distraught.

Baby Pool

I am just over two weeks away from my due date (May 8th) and so incredibly thankful. Everyone is a little surprised at the thought of me making it to my due date or beyond but I'm so glad to be on this end of the pregnancy. The possibility of her coming late was just a dream for all those months when I was so worried about her coming too early.

I really have no idea when she's going to come. We are so excited to meet her though. I started this baby pool if anyone wants to join. I'm trying to come up with a prize for the winner. Here is the link to the baby pool:

http://www.expectnet.com/games/mccarty

The Party

The party was really great. Definitely a hotter than normal day for April but we had some good shade. Thanks to my mom doing most of the food, I didn't have to stress too much before hand and I cannot even say how great it was to enjoy the party without worrying about "over doing it", now that I'm past 36 weeks.
Noelle seemed to have a lot of fun. The bubble wrap (wrapper pop - as Noelle calls it) that my brother brought her was a big distraction during present opening. It is so funny how I get cute party favors to play with and she has all these great presents to open but she's obsessed with the water balloons and bubble wrap.
It was really fun to have so many friends and family with us. It was also fun to have it at Halecrest Park, where my brother and I had countless birthday parties!

Birthday Party

Wanted to post our adorable birthday invitation that my mom created! If any of you friends get this and are able to come, just let me know, you are more than welcome! We can't believe she's going to be two! Hopefully baby sister doesn't crash the party :)! She will get her day to shine soon enough!

Easter 2008

Brooke and Noelle after the Easter Egg Hunt

My cousins Sarah and Lindsay

Ryan and the girls :)

Finding Eggs (she wasn't so concerned with collecting many eggs but just wanted to stop and eat the candy inside - boy does she love jelly beans!)

Candy Monster (Noelle had her mouth filled with candy when we were trying to take this picture and her mouth looks really scary)

I am now 8 months pregnant (33 weeks). I'm still taking it easy but am so thankful each week futher into the 30's that I get. We look forward to our new baby girl coming. My due date is May 8th although we think she'll come before that, late April would be good.

Happy Easter!

Easter's Coming!

Noelle really enjoyed seeing the Easter Bunny. She got to tickle him and he giggled. She is finally learning how to do a smile for the camera, which sure beats trying to get her to smile through some crazy antics (because they really never worked). She says, "Easter's Coming" and I know she's really going to enjoy it. Just wish there was some way to convey the significance other than eggs and bunnies. I'll trust that our love for her is sufficient to reflect that for now and someday she will know just how much more it represents.

Do Re Mi

Noelle and I watch the clip from the Sound of Music where they sing Do Re Mi on You Tube. Before that I would often sing the song to her. Now here she is doing her own rendition - that unfortunately you won't understand if you're not familiar with the song. Ryan has no idea what she's saying whereas I think she does it really well :). I had tried to video her a couple times before but the song is so long that she normally can't make it to the end without becoming distracted by something in her line of vision and forgetting about the song and unless I interject the beginning of the last line, she keeps singing the last couple lines over and over. I love all of the little silly things like this that she does.

"Won't Shock You..."

Our trampoline has a lot of static electricity. After being shocked quite often Noelle now gets a little scared to come out, thinking the person waiting to get her is going to shock her. So she repeats my statement that I won't shock her but she won't come close. I usually have to grab her as she's running around.

Noelle's New Room in Progress

We've decided to move Noelle into a new room and use all her baby stuff and current room for the new baby. This weekend Noelle and Daddy were up and at 'em putting a little toy storage unit together. Noelle is a really big helper. Ryan said he's never had a helper quite like her :)

My Life...

So the past couple of months have narrowed my life down to even fewer activities outside of caring for Noelle. One thing that I have held onto is on Thursday nights I meet with some of the life care counselors at Rock Harbor for supervision. I tell Noelle I'm going to a meeting. Other than an occaisional errand I don't get out much and even Noelle recognizes it.

The other day she wanted me to sing the Elmo song with other people's names in it, which we do occaisionally. I usually make up things that she likes and put them into the words, for example: La la la la, Noelle's song. Noelle loves her Mommy and her blankie too. That's Noelle's song.
So the other day I start singing La la la la, Mommy's song. I pause to see if Noelle can fill in the blank with some of the things I've said before, like Daddy and Noelle. Instead she says, "Mommy loves her meeting" brief pause "and her store." I laughed so hard and I could tell by her face she was pretty proud of her additions. So that about sums up my life.

Dedication

Or should I say, "Decoration" because that is what Noelle calls it. She got a little teeny diamond cross necklace (no bigger than my pinkie nail) from my mom and she gets it and says, "for decoration."We got Noelle dedicated this past Sunday at Rock Harbor. It's a chance for us as parents to commit to raising our child according to how God calls us to live and honor Him. It is also a chance for us to make a declaration that Noelle is God's child that He has entrusted to us but that we must continually entrust back to Him.We got to choose a life verse for Noelle. We chose Zephaniah 3:17:

"The LORD you God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

Our prayer is that Noelle will come to know that these things are true in her life and will see them manifest throughout the years.

We had quite a few family and friends joining us at the church service. Thank you to all of you who came. It meant so much to us and was really special to be sitting in a row with so many of the people we dearly love and draw support from in raising Noelle.Here are a couple of pictures. There was a photographer at church who got some of the three of us that we will get soon.

Ephesians

At church there was recently a message on the passage in Ephesians that makes some people shudder because of the way it has been misused throughout time. It is the passage that talks about how husbands and wives should respond to each other and uses the word submission. This message helps to put the passage in the proper context and understanding as well as highlight how radical a message that Jesus brought for the treatment of women. It is worth listening to!
Here is the link:
http://www.rockharbor.org/resources/messages/index.php?page=current#
When this link comes up, type "husbands" into the search archive box at the top right
Click on the message entitled "husbands, fathers, masters" 2.03.08

First Haircut

Noelle did totally great with her first real haircut. She was all for sitting in the car chair but didn't really want the cape around her neck. Then they put a sesame street video in and she was happy as can be. In the picture with her hand on her head, she had reached up and said, "How's look?" I of course told her it was beautiful!

Tears came later while we were waiting for Ryan to get back from the bike shop. A little boy was screaming his head off and Noelle, not all too concerned, went over to see. As soon as she saw the hair falling to the ground she said, "boy spilled" and got really upset. I'm really not sure what she thought was happening but she did not like it. Fortunately daddy came soon and she got a sucker.

Noelle at 21 months

Here are some recent miscellaneous pictures of Noelle.

Noelle fingerpainting in her homemade apron from Erica.

Playtime with Daddy at the park.

She is starting to get so big! We are having so much fun with all of the new things she comes up with to tell us. I took this picture of her today because I think that she looks so adorable with her hair up in a little ponytail. It makes her look like such a little girl.

Pregnancy update (25 weeks)
This has been an interesting season for us but definitely one that we know God will use for good as we have been learning some important lessons. I have been taking it very easy for the past two months because of having too many contractions. Thankfully, the doctor's are optimistic about the situation, thinking that since they have not caused any problems so far they hopefully will continue to be harmless and I will go to full term.
The difficult part is having still so far to go. We've struggled in making the necessary adjustments and I have had to deal with the worry and anxiety that accompanies pregnancy complications. Whatever the season life brings however, God is always faithful, knowing just what we need. Although the process is not always easy.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 118:105

In a devotional, the question is posed, "Approximately how many feet ahead do you think a lamp might illuminate?" I realized that I was focusing too much effort on what may lie ahead and not looking for the help that God was offering me in the present. I know that worry has the potential to consume me and I really don't want my life to continually be plagued by worry, especially when it comes to my children. You know, I thought that I had worrying under control, but that all changed, the moment I found out I was first pregnant a few years ago.

It's all worth it though, a hundred times over, Noelle brings more joy than I could have ever imagined. :)

Ryan's Favorite Christmas Present

Ryan got a present he and Noelle can enjoy together! How cute is this?

Sledding in the Snow!

Noelle and Daddy's Big Adventure

Noelle and I headed off to the midwest together. Kaitlyn had to stay back so that she could rest and make sure baby girl #2 stays where she belongs. We went on the trip to connect with some of our family we do not get too see very often. We spent a few days with my grandparents, birth father, half brother, and other family members on that side then we headed over to Wisconsin and met up with my Mom and some of our family members out there. It was quite the adventure for Noelle and I. We endured 4 hour plane rides, long car trips, freezing cold weather, unfamiliar sleeping places, Airport chaos, and much more including unloading all of our stuff in 12 degree weather and beginning to check into our hotel only to find out we were at the wrong hotel (there were two Hyatt's on the same block).

She did great and to be honest at times she handled it better than me. Despite the hard stuff of traveling we had a blast as it was her first experience with snow and she loved it! Here are some pictures of family members and fun times in the snow. For me it was a great experience and I learned much about Noelle, myself, and my family. It was fun to allow family so far away to see us face to face and enjoy Noelle. Noelle had a great time at "great grandma" and "papa's" house playing with toys that have been in the family for 40+ years, reading with new people, enjoying the love of Aunt Lisa, playing with Bigggg Bear and Conner (who I think was her favorite on this side), sledding with Grandpa Brad, and just being the star of the show. In Wisconsin Aunt Joan, Grandma Julie, and cousin Meggie provided some great relief for me as they loved playing with her, bathing her, painting her toenails, doing her hair, and even changing poopy diapers. On this side I have to say cousin Meggie was her favorite, thanks cousin Meggie, you were great! Once we finally made it home we slept for 3-4 hours and then just enjoyed the love of Kaitlyn that we both missed so dearly while we were gone!