sweet sleepiness

absolutely there has been nothing greater than seeing my sweet baby's eyes, faces she makes, hands, and wiggly self. there are times where i just feel like i can never put her down, i don't want to miss anything. as much as i love her, this whole only sleeping a couple hours at a time has been taking its toll. day and night very much blur together for me, i get cabin fever often and am starting to hate tv. i came across this while trying to stay awake during a late night feeding, from the valley of vision

"Thou blessed Spirit, author of all grace and comfort,

Come, work repentance in my soul;

Represent sin to me in its odious colours that I may hate it;

Melt my heart by the majesty and mercy of God;

Show me my ruined self and the help there is in him;

Teach me to behold my Creator,

his ability to save,

his arms outstretched,

his heart big for me.

May I confide in his power and love,

commit my soul to him without reserve,

bear his image, observe his laws, pursue his service,

and be through time and eternity

a monument to the efficacy of his grace,

a trophy of his victory.

make me willing to be saved in his way,

perceiving nothing in myself, but all in Jesus:

Help me not only to receive him but

to walk in him,

depend upon him,

be conformed to him,

follow him,

imperfect, but still pressing forward,

not complaining of labour, but valuing rest,

not murmuring under trails, but thankful for my state.*

Give me that faith which is the means of salvation,

and the principle and medium of all godliness;

May I be saved by grace through faith,

live by faith,

do the work of faith.

Perceiving nothing in myself, may I find in Christ wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption."

*i don't consider this time at all to be a state of trials, more so i want to simply be thankful for this season of life.

bringing hazel home

hazel is home. the last week and a half has been such a blur of night and day...i can not even believe its been that long. she has already grown so much. so before i forget some of the details (or before the need for sleep take over) i wanted to write about her birth story :)

the week i went into labor i had been 2 cm dilated. the week before my dr thought we were going to be having this baby two weeks early, but when nothing changed at my dr appt that week they thought i would hold out till my due date. that was on jan 11, then on jan 13, i wasn't feeling great and was feeling pretty huge to be honest. but i went to work and while i was driving was having intense contractions, but honestly nothing i hadn't experienced before. then they started coming about 15 min apart while i was in a session with one of my kids. i wrapped that up and called my husband telling him i was coming home, b/c i needed to lay down for a bit. when i got home they were about 10 min apart, but i was not interested in going to the hospital. i had contractions before and they would eventually pass, so i was just waiting for them to pass. clay kept asking me to go to the hospital and i continued to delay. i honestly just didn't want to be wrong and/or disappointed about going into labor. so after postponing it for almost an hour, i agreed to go to the hospital. clay had promised worst case scenario we will go out to eat and do something fun {such a patient man}.

we got to the hospital and i was walking in telling them i thought i was in labor. the nurses all kinda rolled their eyes since my water had not broken and i didn't seem to be in THAT much pain. moments later they checked me and i was dilated to a 4 1/2 cm. we called our families to let them know the baby was coming that night!

when i dilated to 5 cm, i was having contractions like crazy. super intense. clay was holding my hand as i was squeezing the bajeezes out of him. they came in to break my water, right in the middle of one of the worst contractions. it got crazy really fast. it was about then when my husband, who was recovering from being ill all week was holding my hand, and ran to the corner to throw up. i lost it. was crying. freaking out that my husband was going to be out of commission while i was in labor.

thank the Lord. he recovered. after that i got the epidural, and quickly progressed to 10cm. after a couple of hours of pushing at 1:10 AM hazel kathleen came into this world!

there was concerns of her inhaling her meconium, and potential jaundice, but after 24 hours, she was totally cleared. i know i am totally partial, but i just think she is the prettiest baby. i think she is going to be a carbon copy of her daddy.

hazel with her kiki

my sweet baby girl...oh my goodness i didn't know i could love her so much.

with her lola, this baby has so many people who love her

such a sweet baby

at home :)

hazel kathleen

welcome to the world sweet baby.... we are so in love with this bundle of joy!

look back at 2010

its pretty incredible to think of all the fun/crazy/exciting/life changing things that have happened in this last year...

in january...




had a grand ol time at the jewel charity ball with the hubs and some besties. together we have so much fun :)

in february....

got super geared up for our beloved olympics! even got some pretty neat gear to represent.

in may...
{mucho mucho occured}

we celebrated our mothers together as one big family...which was one of my fav dinners we had

all together

i got an incredible job offer and switched companies to be a bilingual speech therapist. it has been the best decision, career wise, i had ever made and it all happened so fast. i love my job and feel ever so fortunate to be working for such a great company.

then, as clay was studying for his finals, i decided to clear my thoughts and go ahead and get a pregnancy test. i was by myself for all of 15 min before he came home...pacing, shocked, and freaking out. we have always wanted kids, but our timing was a little different. now, we wouldn't change this in anyway.

we also went to fredricksburg with the wooten clan, were we enjoyed some good rest and relaxation.

in july....

we celebrated 2 amazing years of marriage in my most favorite place in all the world. puerto rico. after 10 years of being together, he finally got to see what i had been talking about for forever.


in august...

we moved from our precious one bedroom apt, where we had so many fond memories, to make some room for baby. we moved to our cozy little home.

we also enjoyed some more family time finding out that our baby, was going to be a girl! not even a little bit of an idea of what her name was going to be....we were thrilled!


in september...

chi-town. another fav city of mine :) we got to see many sites, shopped till we dropped, watch a cubs game and eat some fantastic food all in great company.


in november....

we were blessed with showers and love in preparation for our sweet hazel kathleen.

in december...

my patient, loving, wise husband got not one but 2 job offers. in a matter of days he will be quitting his security job that he has had for the last couple of years as he was in school and be the interim youth pastor at our church. then in june he will become an apprentice with a church plant here in the area where he can go to school full time and work full time. finally getting to do what he has been called to do his whole life.

wow....2011, i think you are going to be another fantastic year :)