Big Changes

Well big changes are about to happen in the Berthon house!!!!


With Grandma (GG) not feeling well enough to care for Hannah-Joy full time, Brian and I have been praying what God would have us do with H-J. With daycare prices incredibly high (I have seriously been in the wrong business) not to mention all of the horrible stories that you hear about kids getting taken and beaten and neglected it made me very scared. Brian and I went and looked at several different daycare places as well as a few home care facilities. I left all of them with a sick feeling in my stomach and looking to God for answers. Over the last few weeks Brain and I began to look at our finances and pray for a way to save money for childcare, one day the answer came to both of us. God made it clear that 75% of my paycheck would be going to pay for child care and I would only get to see H-J for a few hours in the evening and on the weekend.

I took all of our bills and created a spreadsheet and it became obvious that we could with very careful budgeting live off of Brian’s paycheck and I could stay home with H-J. Brian and I prayed over this and said that if this was the case that God would put everything into place. Last night I had a sad but comforting conversation with my sister Bev, she is going to be relocating back up to Spokane and it could be sooner rather than later so I went home and spoke with Brian and he and I prayed and we decided that I would give notice at my office and my last day of work will be October 15, 2010.

Please keep Brian and I in your prayers as we are getting ready to walk down a road in our life that we really have no outcome. We are taking a step of faith and giving our finances and home to God for his complete control and I know things will not be easy but I do know that H-J will have a safe and wonderful environment to grow up in and she is very well taken care of and I am excited to see what God has for me as well as for my family.

I do want to leave with a few Pics from this weekend

Playing with Daddy

Smile for Mommy

Big Smile

Huh? Bed time already

Daddy did my hair mom its pretty

Man this has been an extremely long week in the Berthon house.
I have been down and out this week with a sinus infection / bronchitis and between everything with work and home, I feel like I have just hit a brick wall and so ready for the weekend and hopefully feeling better soon. Being a mom, wife, daughter, super woman and executive assistant ohhh and don’t forget dog walker and dog feeder. I seemed to have briefly lost my super GIRL cape so this weekend I will have to catch up on laundry and see if maybe my super cape is in the laundry if not I am pretty sure H-J has hidden it (maybe she put it in her toy box)

Brian has been sick this week as well with an upper respiratory infection by the grace of God Hannah-Joy is the only one that hasn’t gotten sick and I only hope that it will continue she seems to have a strong immune system like her dad (I still think she hid my super GIRL cape protecting her from the sickness). Brian has also been extremely busy with School and Work, he just turned in a big math project that I thought for sure was going to kill him but he managed and as always did a great job.

I mean to update last weekend on Hannah-Joy but lost time.


H-J is not 6 month old and is doing wonderful

Weight: 18.0 pounds – 90%

Height: 27” – 75%

Head: Norma – 50%


She is now eating 3 solid meals a day with about 3 bottles a day


Food

         Rice Cereal w/ Apples

        Oatmeal w/ Bananas



Vegetables

        Green Beans

        Peas

        Carrots

         Sweat Potato’s

        Squash

        Mixed Vegetable


Fruit

         Apples

         Pears

         Peaches (Hated Those)

         Bananas (Loves them just like Momma)

        Banana, Strawberry, Apple

        Mixed Fruit


Meat / Pasta

       Chicken and Rice

       Turkey and Rice

       Chicken and Vegetables

        Mac n Cheese


Activities

 She is now sitting on her own w/ a little support from a pillow

She will lie on her back and scoot till she gets what she wants

She is extremely close to crawling

No teeth yet but we drool all the time

Loves to be outside

She is starting to find her voice (aka Yell)

She has learned 2 things from daddy

          She learned how to spit

          She also learned to King Kong (You have to ask Daddy about these)

She loves to splash in the bath tub

She has a smile that will met anyone’s heart

She is starting to giggle

She has big brown eyes (just like her momma)

All in all she is a wonderful & healthy little baby girl!

Tea Party with Mom

A Blog from H-J

Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights Daddy has to go to this place called school so Mommy and I get to play and have some special alone time.  Well for Valentines Day before I was even born my Great Aunt Mer got me this really cool tea pot set that sings and plays sounds and it so much fun.  Well I am now old enough to play with it and so mom and I spent 45 min playing tea party and having so much fun. 

Sitting on my own waiting for mom to open my Tea Party Box

Hmmmmm what is this?  Sure is pretty!

I needed a closer look so I rolled onto my tummy for a better look!

Man with all that playing I needed dinner and Mom needed a few moments of relaxation. 

Love Hannah-Joy

 (with a little help from Mom)

Sometimes We Just Need Mom!!!

So as many of you know Mom  always has time to stop her to day to pray with us kids and to calm us down when we have our days of trials and tribulations.

This last Sunday we got up and got ready for church and everything was going great. I fed H-J and she is now eating solids 3 times a day so she was full of yummy oatmeal and was laughing and playing and having a great time. We get to church and Bev signs Micah in and Brian signs H-J into the nursery and they hand us the pager and away we go to service. About 10 min into the sermon the pager goes off. I immediately jump up to go see what is going on. I get through the church doors and before I even get to the second set of doors I hear H-J screaming….as a mom you know your babies cry and you know what type of cry and usually know what they need. This was a cry that I have never heard before, I get through the doors and the head nursery lady was walking with H-J trying to calm her down and she was not having it. The very sweet nursery lady was explaining that they tried everything to calm her down and she just was not calming down. I scooped her up in my arms and she started to do the big breath after a hard sob, she snuggled into me and just held on for dear life after a moment she smiles and let out a giggle and seemed to be ok. Turns out she needed her mommy and no one else; I must say I had a little bit of a proud moment as this was the first time that she truly wanted mommy and no one else.

God has blessed us with a very special little girl and I look forward to many more moments of being mom and her needing me as she gets older.

It also made me think about my mom and how important she is in my life. Almost every day on my way home I call my mom to see how her day is going and to talk. This is a special time for me as it is the end of the day and I am usually on my way home to Hannah-Joy. The day I had H-J I remember waiting for my Mom to get to the hospital and the moment she arrived there was a sense of peace and I knew that everything was going to be ok. So even at 28 years old I have moments where I need my mommy and no one else with do.

Mom I know I don’t say this enough but I love you and thank you for always taking care of me. I know that if I ever truly need you that you would do everything in your power to get to me because I am your daughter and we all need our moms.

H-J and Mommy

My Mommy and I

H-J has always had a love hate relationship with her swing. When she was really little the only way we could get her to sleep was in her swing, there were nights when Mom would walk out and see Brian or I asleep on the couch with Hannah-Joy wrapped up and snuggled in her swing asleep. Well when she got to be about 2 months old she hated her swing every time we would put her in it she would get frustrated and scream and cry so we put it away. This weekend we rearranged the house and made a little play room for H-J and all of her stuff since we had baby toys and dog toys scattered around the house and it was not working well we put her swing in the playroom and now all of a sudden she loves her swing again.


The best part is she can take little naps and I know she is safe while I am making dinner or cleaning up a mess. Yesterday evening after a busy afternoon playing with Aunt Bevie and her cousin Micah she needed a nap so of course Mom had to be right there with the camera.

What we  like to call power napping!

Our Sweet Little Sleeping Beauty!

Peek-A-Boo

It has been a very long week in the Berthon household....

H-J has been teething and she is beyond cranky and I am tired from the lack of sleep.  With Grandma (GG) being on the mend, H-J has been staying with her Aunt Bevie while mommy and daddy are at work.  Aunt Bevie has done a great job with alos taking care of Micah her 2 year old as well as H-J.

Nana plays the ear game with Micah so he decided it would be fun to play the ear game with H-J and needless to say she was having fun and so was he....

Since H-J has been teething she is very unhappy but she decided to take a short nap yesterday and this is how we found her. 

Oc course we had to move the blanket to get the perfect picture of our little princess.  One of the very vew pics we have of her sleeping.

Loves and hugs from all of us

Brian, Amanda and H-J

Why Women Cry...

Why Women Cry...

A little boy asked his mother, "Why are you crying?" "Because I'm a woman," she told him.

"I don't understand," he said. His Mom just hugged him and said, "And you never will."

Later the little boy asked his father, "Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?"

"All women cry for no reason," was all his dad could say.

The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry.

Finally he put in a call to God. When God got on the phone, he asked, "God, why do women cry so easily?"

God said: "When I made the woman she had to be special. I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet gentle enough to give comfort. I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children. I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining. I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly. I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart. I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly. And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed." "You see my son," said God, "the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart - the place where love resides."