from the jochims

Peppermint Bliss Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

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8 months!

bella joy is 8 months old today! this past month she has just been developing and learning right before our eyes. i mean, i guess that has been the case every month, but it has been even more WOW this month!

see, i'm 8 months old!

as of november 15, 2010, you are:

• eating 3 meals a day and 4 bottles a day. your favorite thing to eat is any kind of fruit and butternut squash.
• wearing less 6 months attire and more 9 months attire.
• taking 2 naps a day! waking around 6 am and going to bed around 730 or 8 pm.
• going from sitting position to crawling position and back to sitting again.
• moving forward. still scooting, but moving forward.
• pulling up. you love to sit facing momma and pull up using my clothes and body.
• saying mama, dada, baba, dede. you are making so many sounds and really sounding like you are having a little conversation. it makes us laugh every day!
• love love love bath time. you splash and splash and splash, so much so that your cousin lylah looks at you like you are crazy!
• have 4 teeth. 2 on top, 2 on bottom.
• making little giggle noises as you play. this also makes momma and daddy laugh a lot!
• get super excited when daddy gets home from work. you also get very excited when momma or daddy walk into a room that you are in.

baby girl, we love watching you grow. and you are growing fast, not that i'm complaining, but i don't think anyone can deny that it is happening quickly!! you bring us so much joy every day. we are so thankful to God that He has entrusted us with the responsibility of being your momma and daddy. bella joy, we love you!!

anniversary getaway

yesterday afternoon, hubby and i left our baby girl with her bebe and poppy and made the trip to nashville for our 2nd anniversary getaway. we were so so blessed to have some incredibly generous people offer to pay for our trip. we thought we were going to have to pay for gas, but then my mom and dad actually had us drive their car so they could have ours to transport bella! God is so in the business of providing!!

anyway, back to the getaway. we started our evening with dinner at pf changs. we laughed and talked. it was wonderful! then we headed over to hotel indigo to check into our room. it was AWESOME!!! after we took a peek at our room we headed to jackson's for the most wonderful dessert i've ever had at a restaurant, the cookie dough egg roll. DELICIOUS! then we headed to green hills and killed some time in the mall. when we left my hilarious husband made the comment "too bad the only people that can afford to shop here crap on gold toilets." oh adam.

then we headed back to the hotel for some rest and relaxation. another wonderful way God provided on our weekend is that the little man that checked us in to the hotel gave us complementary breakfast and free parking (which should have been $19!).

we had such a great night. we missed our baby girl greatly, but it was so good to getaway and reconnect. we had great conversation, laughs, and slept til we woke up...no alarm! so good.

now my exhausted baby girl is sleeping in my hubby's arms as we sit on the couch and watch extreme makeover: home edition. life is so so good.

as i previously stated...

i love photo cards. we used this one for our sweet baby girl's birth announcement. we got a fun thanksgiving card. and i'm already eyeing this card for our little bella joy's 1st birthday invitations!

i've never been more excited to send a Christmas card as i am this year! what a fine time to share our first year as parents with our friends and family!! and, as i said here, i am so excited to share intentionally. i don't want to send a Christmas card just to send another card, but to share our blessings from 2010 and to share our thankfulness for the birth of Jesus, our Savior.

there really are so many many different Christmas cards that i love this year!! we can count our blessings. we can talk about every good and perfect gift that is indeed from above. we can wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year. and we can even send a Christmas letter in the form of a photo card! the possibilities are endless!!!

the best part is, you can get 50 photo cards for free!! shutterfly is giving bloggers the chance to share and save! you will have to pay tax and shipping, but what a steal! i can't wait to see our finished product!

do you plan to do a Christmas card this year?

Christmas is coming!

the holiday season is quickly approaching!! the jochims are so excited to intentionally celebrate the holidays that are coming. we have our thankful tree set up to remind us to talk about what we are thankful for through thanksgiving and then we will begin preparing our hearts for Christmas by celebrating advent. we are so excited to begin these traditions while our baby girl is young so we will continue to do them as she grows! we are so excited to celebrate what Christmas is about rather than what americans have made it about. and with the Christmas season coming, we (ok, when i say we i mean me) are very excited to send our first card as a family of 3!

and shutterfly is having a wonderful deal this year! you can receive 50 free* holiday cards!!! so i went to check out the many wonderful cards they have this year and was floored at how hard of a decision it was going to be!!!!!

how fun is this one!?!?!
as i said, i really strive to be intentional with our holiday decor/cards, so i really love this one!

we have so many wonderful blessings to count!

i like the idea of including a letter, so this one is wonderful!

and just points of what was great about the year...this one is great too!

yippie for the holiday season! and for our Savior's birth!



*bloggers are eligible to receive 50 free holiday cards. free cards are for 5x7 folded or flat stationary cards. offer ends december 31, 2010. taxes, shipping and handling will apply.

2 years!

two years ago today, adam and i officially started our lives together. what a wonderful day that was. never ever would i have imagined being where we are today. you know, having to get a babysitter if we wanted to go out alone for our 2nd anniversary. but i couldn't have dreamed up anything better.
richard had us repeat these vows:
i (adam/emily), receive you, (adam/emily) to be my wedded (husband/wife). i accept you as a precious gift from God. i love you with a love only Christ Himself could place within my heart. i promise to give myself to you as Christ gave Himself to the church. (Adam/Emily), i will never divorce you. i wish to have and to hold you from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish as long as we both shall live, according to God's sovereign plan.

we danced the night away. laughed. cried. i hung out with a bunch of kids. and with my favorite grown up girls.

tonight we will celebrate 2 years by spending a couple of hours alone together, likely at dairy queen because we have a buy one get one free blizzard coupon. my wonderful bff jj is going to come play with bella joy and we should be home in time to put her to bed ourselves. this weekend my awesome momma and daddy are coming to spend the night with b so we can head to nashville for a one night getaway that wonderfully generous people have paid for in full. like really, we may have to pay for the gas, but 2 meals and lodging is being covered by others. we are so so so so thankful. we love our baby girl more than we ever thought possible, but we are so excited to sleep in and to spend some uninterrupted time together to catch up on each others lives. that may sound crazy, but its hard to have a conversation with a (nearly) 8 month old around! she's so cute and fun that we want her to have all of our attention!!!

anyway, happy anniversary, hubby. thank you for providing, caring, loving, understanding, being oh so patient, and leading our family. you are one terrific husband!

if you want to read the story about how adam and i began, go here.