for the JOY of the Lord is our strength

Christmas is coming!

2011-11-25T20:53:00.006-06:00

Christmas is coming, and I am especially excited this year! I always look forward to this season of remembering the birth of our Savior, but this year I am extra excited to share it with our little sponge, Bella Joy. I'm hopeful that she will soak up lots from the stories and scriptures we read over the next month.

You all know that one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is to send cards to our friends and family! It is our desire as a family to be intention even in choosing our Christmas card! So as I search this website high and low, all of the beautiful colors and sweet messages of the season make me smile :) Here are some of my favorites....

You can find this simple card here. I love the simplicity of this card. It is traditional with red and green and it says "Merry Christmas" which is a must for any card that we send.

This sweet card can be found here. I love the color and the chevron of this card. And (although it doesn't say "Merry Christmas"--I would likely add that in our love-the-jochims part) it says LOVE and JOY which are two words that greatly describe two wonderful gifts that our Savior has given us--unconditional LOVE and JOY that is our strength.

Here is another super sweet and simple one that can be found here. Again, I love the simplicity and the words. (and that is one cute kid!)

And lastly, another red and green square card (found here). I like this one a lot because there is more space for our family to personalize it (which will give us a chance to be even more intentional).

Oh, its so hard to choose! Stay tuned to a mailbox (or blog) near you to find out what the Jochim's decide!

Playful Picasso Fundraiser

2011-10-23T19:57:00.000-05:00

Our last big fundraiser of the year is coming up! Please make plans to join us for a painting party! The awesome ladies of Playful Picasso (www.playfulpicasso.com) have graciously offered to do a fundraiser to help bring our baby home! The cost is $35 and the profits will go directly into our adoption fund.

If you aren't familiar with Playful Picasso (check out the website!) you will go home with a 16x20 canvas that you paint yourself! Trust me, Amy and Rachel walk you through making it look awesome, so if you don't think of yourself as an artist, its OK!!!!!

Due to the nature of this fundraiser, space is limited to 35 people. After 35 people have signed up, we will create a waiting list and notify you if anyone cancels. We would appreciate it if you could send payment before the night of the 7th to secure your spot. Please let me know if you have questions and also, let me know if you want to come and I will put your name on the list!!!

winner winner-chicken dinner!

2011-10-22T21:39:00.002-05:00

our movie night was a HUGE success! thanks for everyone who came out to hang with us and to all of the ones who got tickets! here are the winners!

-cakes pops from the cake pop shoppe: Paula

-art piece by ashmill: Sarah Tarrence

-pamper yourself basket: Rebecca Redd

-cake pops from the cake pop place: Tammy Turpin

-Goalrilla gift set: Jennifer Hart

-BGB Photo Session: Jennifer Hart

-External Hard drive: Marianna Lucas

-31 skirt purse/wallet: Melinda Myatt

-XM Radio: Tammy Turpin

-Baking Basket: Ashmill

-Pillowcase Dress: Elsie Hughes

-Very Hungry Caterpillar: My momma

-Digital Photo Frame: Don Brown

-Lawn Chairs: Jennifer Hart

-doll bed/quilt: Joe Batista

-key chain: Ashley Barnes

-Crayon Roll: Melinda Myatt

-Africa Shirt: Mary Beth Carlisle

-Soda Cozy: Jenny Borders

-Soda Cozy: Amanda Turner

-Dry Erase Frame: Bethany Lewis

-Headband: Mary Beth Carlisle

-Kindle: Joyce

Thanks for playing our giveaway game....I wish we would have had prizes for everyone!!!

18 months

2011-09-15T14:51:00.005-05:00

today bella joy is 18 months old. 1 1/2 years. oh. my. i really don't feel like it could be possible that my sweet big girl has been outside of my belly for a year and a half. but i also feel like she has been a part of our family forever. isn't it strange how time works.

anyway...at 18 months this little lady is a sponge! its like she learns new things by the minute. she loves to sing, sign, talk, and play. she loves people. she is totally living up to her name in that she is an absolute JOY! i mean, don't get me wrong, we have our moments. disobedience. whining. tantrums. but MOST of the time she is an absolute JOY ;)

bella joy, thank you for being so fun. and for being such a hoot! you make momma and daddy laugh all the time and we are so glad. please love us like you do forever. and we will do the same. happy half birthday sweet girl.

the next big thing: take 2

2011-09-14T14:05:00.002-05:00

i told you lots of fun things were coming up! also in October, our dear friend (and my get-in-shape accountability partner!) Brie Golliher is doing mini-photo-sessions for us! we are so excited and thankful for the generosity of our friends! anyway...back to the task at hand!

Brie will be doing mini-sessions on October 15 & 16 at Romanza Johnson Park. the session will be 30 minutes long. you will get 10 images (rights to print as you wish). the cost is $75 and 60% of that will go DIRECTLY into our adoption fund!

if you are interested you can email or facebook Brie or myself. you can also check out her work here.

the next big thing

2011-09-13T20:51:00.002-05:00

on Saturday October 22nd, you will want to plan to be in Alvaton, KY! we are going to have an outdoor movie night to help bring our baby home! as we wait on our referral, we know we have a big chunk of money to raise in order to accept the referral when we get it. we are so excited to meet this baby!

anyway, our outdoor movie night will be at our house. we will project the movie onto the side of our house. so you will want to bring blankets or lawn chairs and your favorite friends! (the movie will be kid friendly!)

you will also have a chance to buy tickets to get chances to win some "giveaways". right now we have some fun and exciting items! (including a Kindle, a handmade doll bed and handmade doll quilt, as well as some other fun crafty things, and lots more! so do you have a talent? (baking, photography, crafty) or would you just like to donate a gift card to a local restaurant? we are hoping that this will be a BIG fundraiser, so the more "giveaways" the better! (i'm trying to avoid calling it the "r" word!)

and stay tuned because we have several more FUN FUN FUN fall things coming up!

dollar general market: my take on it

2011-09-12T16:25:00.001-05:00

last week I got a sales flier in the mail for dollar general market. I briefly looked it over and saw a few deals so I thought I would see how much further dgm is from my house than my usual grocery buying places. then I looked closer at the flier and noticed two things: 1) the sales were for the dgm in scottsville 2) there was a $5 off a $20 purchase coupon. so I was back to mapping the distance. the scottsville store is only a mile or 2 farther from my house in distance but with zero stop lights and almost no traffic, I thought it must be faster. so this morning b and I took a little cruise to the big city of scottsville!

here are my observations:
1) as far as time is concerned, this is where it's at! I got to and from my location quicker and was able to make it through the store faster because there were very few people there!
2) the employees were SUPER friendly and helpful! I can not say the same for all of the stores we frequent.
3) produce was priced very well!! avocados were 85 cents each which is a steal people! (they are 1.66 at kroger this week).
4) as far as healthy choices go, they have no whole grain pastas or tortillas. they did not have fat free or low fat cheese, sour cream, or cream cheese. they did have whole grain bread, but it wasn't as cheap as Aldi's. (I make our bread so this doesn't matter for us, but it might for you!)
5) they did have nutella!!! and they have more name brand items as well (tide, charmin, big brand foods, etc). I got 12 pack angel soft tp for 4 bucks. I call that a good deal! As far as prices of other things, there were several really great deals and everything that wasn't over the top awesome was comparable to aldi or walmarts prices. I did pass up a couple of things that are cheaper at kroger this week because of sales.

All in all, I'm loving the scottsville dollar general market! This will become a regular in our grocery repertoire! Especially if the keep sending $5 coupons!!

Oh, and they DO accept manufacturer coupons!

Adoption update

2011-08-30T09:19:00.001-05:00

if only I were better at coming up with clever titles...

anyway, we have some big stuff going on in the way of adoption. last week we mailed our dossier! and we found out that we are number 11 on the waiting list! this morning I woke up at 530 and I couldn't fall back to sleep because I couldn't stop thinking of this little one...is it a he or a she, is he/she born yet, what will it be like when we see the first picture, when will we see the first picture, etc, etc, etc.

so while we wait for the answers to those questions we still have quite a lot of money to raise, which should keep us quite busy! we have some very fun fundraisers coming including (but not limited to) craft fairs (you can always make special requests!!), more mini photo sessions, painting, a movie night and raffle, and as always thirty-one parties! be on the look out for how you can join the fun!!

b and I mailing the dossier!!!

fundraiser friday!

2011-08-19T16:14:00.002-05:00

so i pretty much stink at weekly blog ideas...but i'm not giving up! so here we are for another fundraiser friday!!!

today i want to bring to your attention an extra-special-to-me fundraiser! it is extra special because it will help bring my niece home!

yesterday my sister and Lylah came to our house to play and as Lylah was walking around talking on the (play) phone, i asked her who she was talking to. she said "Lydia"! she talks about her sister all the time and when you ask her "where is Lydia?" she knows the answer is "Africa". oh how i long for her to be able to answer "in our room!"

anyway, check out my sister's blog to see how you can help bring Lydia home! on september 11th, Lara and Nathan will be having an adoption cook out. in conjunction with the cook out they are having a raffle with all kinds of great prizes! so even if you live out of town and can't come to the cook out, you can still have a chance to get in on the fun! if you would like to get tickets, tell me--or email/facebook message my sister!

what's new with boo?!

2011-08-11T14:56:00.001-05:00

Bella Joy will be 17 months old in 4 short days. She is growing and changing so much. It really does seem like each day she learns something new. It is the neatest thing to witness. So let's talk about some of the things that our nearly 1 1/2 year old is up to, shall we?!

She is learning new words by the minute. She can say bye, hi/hey/hello, thank you, please, loads of animals, two, a, b, c, bless you, momma, daddy, poppy, bebe, papaw, lylah, Elsie, zoey, loads of animal sounds, book, ball....ok maybe I'll stop. Just in the past month or so she has taken off! She says so much, I can't even keep up! She also understands so much!! She knows when she is doing something she shouldn't, when she is being funny, and how to follow simple instructions. She also signs more, please, thank you, milk, bath, help, eat, and water (again, I may be forgetting some!)

She loves to play!! She is a pro at her shape sorter and can do it mostly by herself. She loves animals and books. She loves to swing, slide and run.

She is still taking 2 naps a day, which I am totally ok with (it just makes errands more difficult). And she is also becoming a more adventurous eater.

She definitely makes us laugh regularly and really does bring so much joy to our lives! Boy oh boy 17 months has flown by!

finger printing

2011-08-09T20:10:00.001-05:00

today we had our finger printing appointment in Nashville! It was a really interesting experience. the immigration office is a room full of lots of chairs and a few workers. when we walked in, we were greeted by the guard who was super friendly and asked us questions about our process. then we headed back to get the prints done. we were there for 15 minutes max. there were a few immigrants in the office, and while the staff was SUPER friendly to us, they were less than friendly to the international folks, which made us sad. I am sure that their job in that office can be very difficult at times though, so I won't pretend to understand what they are dealing with...but it was still sad.

all that to say, we are one big step closer to bringing our sweet baby home! the next step is mailing our packet of paper work called the dossier. and pretty much all that is left to do is wait and pray! very soon we will be OFFICIALLY on the waiting list for a referral! :) stay tuned!

What we did Wednesday!

2011-08-03T20:09:00.001-05:00

Today I thought it would be fun to have a surprise date for my hubby. He works so hard to provide for us and does so without complaining. So I wanted to do something for him. Enter surprise disc golf with a twist (in the back yard)!

I made 6 tags and attached them to baskets and buckets. Each tag was numbered (to number the "hole") and had something written on the back that we had to tell each other (ie. where are 5 places you would move to, what are five desserts you could eat right now, etc). The best part is, we got to put our girl to bed and then enjoy some time together and some fun conversation without ever leaving our property! What a fun Wednesday!

The first hole. I won this one! And we won't talk about the rest of them :)

My hot date holding the rest of the holes. What a fun night!!!

Fundraiser Friday!

2011-07-29T07:52:00.002-05:00

Each Friday, I am going to share a fundraiser(s) that profits a cause near and dear to my heart. It will likely mostly be adoption/Africa related but maybe sometimes not too. Sometimes I will share about things our family is doing to bring our baby home, sometimes friends, and sometimes strangers. So without further ado, welcome to our first fundraiser Friday!

Today I want to showcase 2 dear families who are in the process of adopting and both rather close to recieving referrals (which means large sums of money will be due).

First our friends Stuart and Jenny are in the process of adopting 2 sweet babies from dr Congo! They have biological twins who will be 3 in December. And they will be awesome big brother and sister!!

Stuart and Jenny and doing a tshirt blitz right now! They have several sizes available for $15 (they were originally $20). So please, follow their blog link above and help bring s & k's younger siblings home!!

Next I want to share with you Jason and Dwan who are in the process of bringing home a little boy from Ethiopia! Jason and Dwan have 4 biological children (one of which is a boy) and they are some of the sweetest siblings you will ever see! The Graham's are stepping out in obedience to God's call to care for the fatherless by bringing one more into their home.

On Saturday, August 20 they will be having a pancake breakfast at Applebees in Bowling Green. Tickets are $6 and $5 of those dollars will go directly to bringing their sweet boy home! I am telling you about this delicious fundraiser now because they are pre-selling tickets and will not have tickets available at the door! So click on their blog link above and contact Dwan by next Friday August 5 to reserve your tickets!!!

Thank you for joining us in our first ever fundraiser Friday!!! And thank you for caring for the fatherless by supporting these families!

things are changing

2011-07-25T14:33:00.001-05:00

I have been challenged lately to really focus on my priorities and shift them to match what God desires them to look like. I am thankful.

One of my priorities is being a blessing to our family financially. I am responsible for grocery shopping in our home and I am doing my best to get great deals by shopping sales and couponing. I have gotten some bargains in the past couple of months including free pasta, free canned tomatoes, free BBQ sauce, free dish soap, free toothpaste, nearly free shampoo and body wash as well as many other items. Well today I got some deals for my new business! That's right, another way I am hoping to bless our family financially is by being a thirty-one consultant! (my website is mythirtyonetoday.com/emilyjochim) I am so so excited about this opportunity and will blog more about it soon! But now for my deals!

First I went to walgreens. Here you see 10 folders, 1 box of 24 crayons, an index card holder and 2 packs of 10 pens. I got all of this for 1.87. (pens and folders are for business).

Next stop was staples! You see 10 folders, a 7 pack of pens, 2 2 packs of sharpies, a 500 pack printer paper, and a sliding pencil case. My total after sales and rebates was 1.60!!! Talk about a deal!

Expect some other fun new things here at jochimsjoys coming soon!

Repurposing

2011-06-25T08:33:00.001-05:00

Upon discovering two awesome blogs this week, I got the sewing itch!

The first project I discovered was a denim skirt made from a men's button up shirt. I recalled one that Adam had gotten from work and never worn and after asking his permission, I cut in! It's a cute little skirt but I want to replace the buttons and would really like to try it with a men's khaki shirt.

Next I found a tutorial for a jersey skirt. I changed a few details of it but kept it mostly the same.

After 2 skirts I wanted to tackle a top so into my closet I went. I found a long sleeved shirt that I got from target years ago and cut the sleeves off. Then I followed the instructions to turn the sleeves into a ruffle. I love this top!

Finally I repurposed a tshirt and a strapless dress into a cutie ruffle top dress with a red belt! I even had Adam take a corny picture of me modeling it :)

***the 2 blogs are madebylex.com and rufflesandstuff.com

****I need to take before pictures too!

Thirty One Gifts Fundraiser!

2011-06-06T07:03:00.002-05:00

We are having a Thirty One fundraiser! A very generous friend has volunteered to donate her profits to our adoption fund! You can shopt for birthdays, plan ahead for Christmas gifts, and just treat yourself to something pretty! They really have something for everyone!

And the special this month is AWESOME!!! For every 31 dollars you spend, you can get a large utility tote (regularly 30 dollars) for only NINE DOLLARS! That is one awesome deal that you can get while helping us bring our sweet baby home!!!

Want to participate but can't make it to the party?! You can see me to place an order, or you can order online here! Click "place an order" at the top of the page and follow the prompts. Our fundraiser is currently the only one listed, so you should see it! :)

Please make plans to attend/participate!! And as always, thank you for your support!

25 years!

2011-05-20T06:05:00.002-05:00

happy 25th birthday to hubby! so thankful that he was born 25 years ago today...because we get a break on our car insurance! ha! just kidding. here are 25 reasons that i love my hubby.

1. he loves Jesus first.
2. he loves family (mine, his) and spending time with them.
3. the way he loves our baby girl. it really is beautiful.
4. the way he wanted to pursue adoption NOW rather than later (he initiated.)
5. that he will rinse poopie diapers for me when the day has been crazy (and when the day hasn't been crazy.
6. the way he provides for our family (even when he doesn't love what he does.)
7. how he supports me in my endeavors (sewing, baking, whatever other thing i want to do.)
8. that he is so stinking good at running (seriously, he could not train for a year and still run 5 miles!)
9. that he loves to try new things (train for a triathlon, anyone!?)
10. that he shares my love for ikea :)
11. his heart.
12. his beautiful blue eyes.
13. that he is so quick to give me a break when he gets home from work even though i know he has had a long day himself.
14. that he loves to serve.
15. the he works so hard so i can stay home with our babies (and would work 3 jobs if he had to so i could stay home.)
16. that he is always ready and willing to hang with boo so i can have a girls night with small group or mops or whatever it is!
17. that he is willing to wake up with boo when she wakes up.
18. he loves me unconditionally.
19. that he loves sports and knows whats going on with his teams even though we don't have the channels that show the games (and never once complains about not having those channels.)
20. that he is so outdoorsy (remember part of the reason i fell for him is because he was taking a kayaking class :)!)
21. that he is willing to be a dog sitting family just for a little extra money (i always get us roped into dog sitting! its great!!!)
22. that he is willing to go where God leads us, no matter what.
23. that he is so committed and loyal to his friends.
24. that he will drive to the store down the road to get me a sprite when i get a craving.
25. that he wants to have lots of babies with me!

happy birthday sweet husband. thank you for all you do for us. we are so thankful for all 25 years of you!!!! we love you!!

one piece at a time

2011-05-11T21:29:00.000-05:00

sweet friends, i am very excited to share with you another way that you can help bring our sweet baby home...one piece at a time.

we have purchased the world map puzzle above. it is a 100 piece puzzle. we are putting each piece of the puzzle up for sponsorship. when you sponsor a piece of this puzzle, you will have the chance to put a message to our sweet child on the back of the puzzle piece. (if you have children, you may want to sponsor multiple puzzle pieces so they can write a message to baby jochim too!) it is our hope that, when finished, we will be able to put the puzzle together and have a back full of messages to our sweet baby, before he/she even comes home! we will modpodge the puzzle together and hang it in his/her room as a reminder of God's faithfulness in providing a way to his/her forever family. it is our hope that our sweet baby will one day look at the messages from friends and family and see that he/she was loved even before we had seen his/her face.

the suggested donation for sponsorship is $10 per puzzle piece. please consider joining us, and helping us meet our second child face to face.

if you would like to sponsor, email us at thejochims@gmail.com or write me on facebook. thank you again for traveling this road with us.

adoption update

2011-05-10T20:37:00.002-05:00

i've been a slacker blogger lately! partially due to laziness, partially due to lots of playing with my girl, cleaning, baking, and getting paper work together for our home study!

so here is a little update of what is going on in our little world. we are still doing crafts for congo (but it has slowed WAY down!) we completed our 2 mini photo session fundraisers. and we have a few other fundraisers in the works. but with just those 2 fundraisers, we have our first agency fee!!! that is a HUGE step forward, but we still have a long road ahead of us, and a lot of money to raise! (of course, you will be able to hear about all of our fundraising endeavors, right here!)

we had our first home study meeting last week and it was wonderful! we were only a little nervous going in, but it went off without a hitch. our social worker is FANTASTIC (as we heard she would be!) and we are very excited to say that our final home study meeting will be may 24 at 530 pm! so in the meantime we are gathering lots and lots of paperwork. once we send our agency fee in, we will gather even more paperwork to compile our dossier-which will eventually be sent to the congo. we are making progress here, people!

if you have questions about our adoption process, please ask! we will be as real and honest as we know how to be. here are a few questions that we have heard a lot of!

Q: how old will your child be?
A: we have requested that our child be younger than bella joy (born after march 15, 2010). our home study will be written for a baby 14 months old or younger.

Q: why does your sister already know she is getting a girl? are you getting a girl or a boy?
A: lara and nathan requested a girl. we are very excited about having another niece and meeting sweet lydia face to face!! we did not request a specific gender. so we could have a boy or a girl. it will be a surprise upon referral! :) (i had a dream about our baby the other night, and in that dream, it was a boy...not that i'm a prophet or anything).

Q: what are you going to name your baby? will you keep his or her name the same?
A: we are not opposed to letting our baby keep his or her african name. we will always be open and honest with him/her about where he/she came from. the adoption will not be a secret (obviously--i mean, you can't really hide it when your skin is a different color!) so the idea of keeping the african name is kind of fun to us. however, we do not want our child to go through life with everyone mispronouncing his/her name. so we will likely give them a first name and possibly keep the african name for a middle name. if our baby is a boy, his name will be micah timothy and if it is a girl her name will be...well, thats still up in the air. (we like cora and eliana...but we'll see :)).

Q: so, is it really expensive?
A: adoption is a long and costly process. we are not buying a child, we are paying for the services of the agency staff/country staff. if you are interested in adopting, i would love to give you more info! if you are just being nosy...well you can honestly find this info on your own by looking on any adoption agency's website. but yes, its expensive. no, we aren't buying a baby.

what else ya got?

please keep praying for our journey, for our baby, for our baby's biological family. and thank you so so much for your support so far! lets bring this baby home!

another way to help!

2011-04-21T21:26:00.002-05:00

we have been having an awesome week on the adoption front! saturday we had 2 big fundraisers and both were a HUGE success! we also got our first home study meeting scheduled! it will be may 4th at 530 pm and we are so excited and maybe a little nervous! anyway, back to the task at hand! :)

we have another awesome opportunity for you to partner with us (AND LARA AND NATHAN!!!!) in our adoption journey(s). our incredible and generous daddy was thinking one day and had a vision for a child sized park bench. he called me and told me his plans. when i agreed that it was an awesome idea, he excitedly hung up and called my sis. we are so thankful for his creativity and excitement for bringing his grand babies home!

as i said, our dad designed and built these benches and he is ready and willing to make MORE!! would you like one for a little one in your life? maybe to put in your garden? or to spice up your landscaping? (i should also mention that these babies are STURDY! they do indeed hold adults.) if you would like to help us bring some sweet babies home from the congo-please contact us (me or my sis). the suggested donation is $65. thanks in advance! a sweet little boy we know on his bench. he says "baby bella gave me my bench" but actually his daddy won it for him in a silent auction we had at the tc cherry craft bazaar!

bella's bff modeling the bench at the craft bazaar!

bench in an herb garden.

imagine your little one in the place of leo the lion and polly the pig :)

elsie ann hughes

2011-04-20T20:39:00.003-05:00

our 2nd niece made her debut on monday morning. she entered this world at 703 am weighing in at 7 lbs. 8 oz. and she was 21 inches long. sweet elsie ann hughes had a very traumatic delivery and came out with the cord wrapped around her neck which caused quite a scare. after a few quick snuggles from her momma and daddy, elsie was whisked away to the neonatal intensive care unit.

as soon as i found out about my dear niece's breathing problems, i quickly texted my small group and a few of my best friends and asked them to begin praying. amanda and andrew did the same. after talking to the nicu doctor and the nicu nurse on monday afternoon, amanda and andrew were pretty certain that they would be spending their time at the hospital without their brand new baby in the room with them and that they would be dismissed at least a day before her. we are confident that because of the prayers of God's people-sweet elsie ann was able to go to her momma's room last night AND she was dismissed at the same time as amanda this afternoon. tonight they are home for the first time as a family of 3 (or 5 if you count the spoiled pups!)

we are already certain that God has big plans for elsie and boy is she a CHAMP! oh, and her momma and daddy. yeah, they are pretty much rockstars too. they handled her stay in the nicu with such courage and grace. i am so so proud of both of them. and i'm a pretty proud aunt too!

today when i got to see her in person for the first time-i, of course, cried! :) God is so good. and you know, even if elsie was spending another night in the nicu tonight-God would still be so good. but we are forever thankful that he chose this route for her life, and that she will be sleeping (hopefully!) in the pack-n-play in her momma and daddy's room at her very first house tonight!

welcome to the family sweet elsie ann. we prayed hard for you--for 2 years! we cried when we found out you were coming. and then we cried when your mommy's water broke. and we prayed for a smooth delivery. and then we cried when we heard you were here. and we cried when we heard of your breathing problems. and we prayed that God would heal you. and He did. and i'm sure we will cry over you many, Many, MANY more times and we will pray for you many, Many, MANY more times. you are such a blessing. and you are really lucky to have one awesome momma and poppa! :)

happy family of 3!
sisters-in-law with their baby girls.

sisters-in-law with their nieces! :)

the difference a year makes

2011-04-15T10:04:00.003-05:00

my oh my the difference a year makes. last year on april 15th i photographed a very fussy 1 month old! today i photographed a very wiggly and happy 13 month old. my oh my.

(sorry about the not turned picture. i turned it...but blogger didn't agree.)

our cloth diaper dilemma

2011-04-07T19:44:00.002-05:00

so our sweet girl turned one and started walking full time. when she became more mobile, she developed a rash. a really bad rash. each time that it came, we switched to disposables so we could use heavy duty diaper cream and then when it went away, we switched back to cloth. well the rash kept coming back. let me remind you that our girl (whom i love more than i can even begin to describe!) is and always has been high maintenance. (breech, messed up tongue, sensitive skin that reacts to johnsons baby wash/lotion/shampoo, etc.) so i just knew that it was just some cloth diaper thing that we wouldn't be able to recover from. on the third round of rash, i wrote the diaper shops team on facebook. i figured that if i was going to get help, that was the place to start. well a sweet lady named stacey responded almost immediately! she asked which diapers we had in our stash and what detergent we used. after i told her, she said that the same thing had happened to her daughter and it was a reaction to the microfiber in some diapers (some of our diapers have that microfiber, some have no microfiber). so she suggested that we strip our non-microfiber dipes and try using those exclusively. well, wouldn't ya know that it solved our problem! so now, we are exclusively using prefolds (econobum and flip) and 6 bumgenius organic all-in-ones. we are SELLING 10 bumgenius 3.0's and 1 bumgenius 4.0's if you or anyone you know might be interested. we would like to sell them to get a few more prefolds and covers so i don't have to wash every other day :) have any of my other cd-ing friends run into any problems like this?!

crafts for congo, take 2

2011-03-27T14:24:00.003-05:00

if you are my friend on facebook, then you have already seen the additions to our crafts for congo fundraiser. additions will continue to happen and i want to keep it updated on the ol' blog too, in case any readers aren't on facebook! so far we (yes, we. adam cuts while i sew. he is an awesome husband) have made 20 shirts and lots of other goodies too! we are in awe of your generosity and God's provision. and we are trusting that He will keep on providing! if you missed the first crafts for congo post, you can find it here. now on to the crafts for congo additions!!!

this is a crayon roll-up. you can purchase one (or 5!) for $10 a pop. if you order for a boy in your life, it will come with an elastic closure instead of ribbon--you know, to man it up a bit :)

this tote can be yours for just $15. if you have a country that is close to your heart, a heart can be appliqued onto the spot where that country lives! and if you prefer a letter or a flower (or something else) let me know--we can probably make it happen! or at least we will try!

this week we have had requests for things not in the crafts for congo album/blog posts. so if you have something in mind that you do not see, let us know! we will try almost anything to get our baby in our arms faster! if you would like to order any of these things, write me on facebook or email us at thejochims@gmail.com!

thank you in advance for helping us meet our 2nd child!

THANK YOU!

2011-03-23T14:58:00.002-05:00

we are 4 days into our fundraising and we are already so overwhelmed by the generosity of our sweet friends! so THANK YOU! thank you for loving our family. thank you for loving the fatherless. God is so good.

more crafts are up in the crafts for congo facebook album. check them out! and if you want to sign up for a mini-photo session, there is still time!!

crafts for congo

2011-03-21T16:38:00.002-05:00

coffee cozy

soda can cozy

our next fundraiser in our adoption journey is crafts for congo! i will be adding more crafts to my facebook album in the next couple of days. each item will be $10 (except the applique africa tshirt/onesie, which is $15). if you are interested in supporting our adoption in this way, please let us know! you can email thejochims@gmail.com or write me on facebook.

we are so excited that time slots are filling up for the mini sessions. if you are interested in getting some family, maternity, baby photos taken, let me know! its a deal and it goes to a great cause.

thank you for joining us in our journey!

we've been accepted

2011-03-20T15:45:00.003-05:00

on friday afternoon, adam and i received an email from one world adoption services informing us that we have officially been accepted into the congo program!!! we are overwhelmed with excitement and thankfulness. we will begin our home study in the coming days, which is the first step in bringing our sweet child home. i'll be sharing more in the coming weeks on why we have chosen to adopt, why the democratic republic of congo, and where we are in the process.

but today i am sharing the first way that YOU can be a part of bringing a sweet orphan to his/her forever family!

my very talented friend ashley miller (ashmill) has offered her services to help fund our adoption.

AshMill Photography will be offering mini-photo sessions in Bowling Green, Kentucky on Saturday, April 16 (and Sunday, the 17 if needed) and in Evansville, Indiana on Saturday April 30. Each session will last 20-30 minutes and will be a combination of posed and candid portraits. For $50 clients will get to choose 10 images (high-res, custom edited digital files, with full rights for printing) with the option to purchase additional images. Groups (individuals, couples, families, etc.) of any sizes welcome. $30 from each session will go directly to our adoption fundraising.

you can check out some of her photography here.

send an email to thejochims@gmail.com or message me on facebook to set up your mini-shoot. we'll send details about where to meet and answer any other questions you may have as well.

and don't forget to help spread the word and invite your friends!!!!!

one year

2011-03-14T20:23:00.006-05:00

one year ago today, we welcome our sweet isabella joy elizabeth jochim into this world. we became momma and daddy to the most beautiful creation we had ever witnessed. what a wonderful day that was.

our baby girl is now 1 year old! she has grown lots and lots in her first year. (we will know just how much after her 1 year check up on thursday). and she has developed lots and lots in her first year. she learned to nurse. she learned to bottle feed. she learned to hold her head up. she learned to roll over. she learned what surgery is like. she learned to babble and jabber. she learned to scoot. she learned to crawl. she she learned (is still perfecting) to walk. she said and signed her first words. she learned to smile and give kisses. she learned to click her tongue and be a copy cat. :)

bella joy, your daddy and i are so in love with you, and we fall more in love with you each and every day. not a day goes by that we do not thank our God for you and for entrusting us to be your mommy and daddy. we can not wait to see what you learn in your second year of life. we can't wait to watch you run after lylah and teach elsie ann all of your tricks. we can't wait to see your reaction to your other new cousin and become a big sister. sweet baby girl, we will enjoy every moment we have with you.

bella joy, at 1 year old you love to eat. your favorite thing is grilled cheese, however, you are beginning to love other things too-spaghetti, quesadillas, more and more fruit, muffins, and even lasagna soup. you love to give kisses. you love love love to play. you could spend hours opening and flipping the pages of your books (which is nice considering just a few weeks ago, you were gnawing chunks out of them!) you love when your daddy gets home from work! you often hear the garage door open before momma does and you get so so so excited!! you love to crawl and you crawl so fast. you love to pull the dvds out of their baskets (even when momma and daddy tell you know 400 times!) you love to sneak into the bathroom and lift and drop the toilet seat (again, even when momma and daddy say no!) you love to copy your poppy and he loves when you cough back at him. you are such a smiley joy (most of the time) and we are so thankful for that. we love to watch you make new discoveries and to love us back.

**oh, did i say we can't wait to see you become a big sister? that's because we will (Lord willing) bring our second child home from the democratic republic of congo before bella joy's second birthday! :)

treasuring God in our traditions: Easter

2011-03-09T14:34:00.002-06:00

lent. i guess it starts today. i've never understood the "i'm giving up ____ for lent" thing. i've heard many. facebook. gum. ice cream. eating sweets. tv. etc. etc. i've never stopped and asked a person, why? why are you giving up whatever it is that you are giving up for lent? until the other day.

you see, i've had "treasuring God in our traditions" by noel piper on my to read list since before we were expecting bella joy. i've read bits and pieces, but never the whole thing from front to back. a few days ago, i opened it to the section on easter...since easter is the next holiday that we want to intentionally celebrate as a family. i wanted take from her ideas and see what she had to say in general. and i am so glad that i did.

"lent comes from an Old English word that means lengthen, signifying that the days are getting longer because spring is here. among many Christians, lent has come to mean the pre-easter season that begins on ash wednesday.

traditionally lent is a season of sober, realistic reflection on our own lives and our need for a Savior. it is a time for turning away from anything that has kept us from God and for turning or returning to him. it is a time to pray that God will renew our love for Him and our dependence on Him." page 93-treasuring God in our traditions

she goes on to talk about how many people choose to fast from things that distract them from God.

now many would argue that it shouldn't take a single holiday for us to turn to God or to depend on Him. but lets be honest, in our lives, there are many many distractions! facebook, tv, magazines, friends, kids, husbands, blogs :). i think it is a wonderful idea to fast from these things to redirect your focus. but i think it is lame to say "i'm giving up _____ for lent" just because thats what you do during lent. why give something up for no reason? or just because?

so in thinking of what often distracts me, to the point of satan using it to feed me lies, several things came to mind. tv. blogs. facebook. and that is just 3. and my decision for the easter season was to remove the facebook app from my phone and also to remove words with friends from my phone. this may end at the end of april. it may stay this way forever. i may decide that i like my life with way way less facebook so much that i never look at it again. or i may put the app back on my phone having learned a whole stinking lot about boundaries.

i am not doing this to say "look at me, look at me!" that is the LAST thing that i want! i am doing this to say "emily, look to Jesus. your Savior. His sacrifice. reflect. seek Him first. not facebook. not the biggest loser. not words with friends. not some blog. seek HIM first."

now, when you see me on facebook-don't think that i have given up and given into temptation. i am not ridding my life completely of facebook (for reasons that will be revealed in the next week or so). but since i have a beautiful (almost) 1 year old filling my days, i won't be chronically checking it via my phone, but will only look at it when she is sleeping, if then.

how will you remember Christ and His sacrifice this easter season? does your family have any fun ways that you celebrate intentionally?

thankful

2011-03-02T19:55:00.002-06:00

our sweet nearly one year old was diagnosed with rsv on monday. oh my, i have never seen anything so pitiful. i don't know if you remember that she pretty much cried constantly her first 4 months of life, but the past few days, seeing her this way has been the hardest part of mommyhood yet. we've done lots of snuggling and napping together, which i absolutely love, but i think i will love it more when she is back to her happy giggly self!

anyway, i'm not thankful for sickness. not even a little. but i am so thankful for my awesome hubby during this sickness (and always really). we have been taking turns getting up with her at night, when he really could just make me do it every time. as soon as he gets home from work, he jumps in and helps with boo. last night when we put sweet baby girl to bed, we started watching biggest loser and my awesome husband went into the kitchen and made pumpkin muffins for our breakfast this week (because i haven't had time to do any baking with a baby that doesn't want to be put down). i told him that i could do it, and he insisted that he wanted to do it for me. what an awesome hubby and daddy. we love him! :)

how you can help!

2011-02-18T06:28:00.003-06:00

my sister and brother-in-law are in the process of bringing a sweet baby home from the democratic republic of congo. in case you were unaware, the adoption process is an expensive one. a home study can be 1500-2000 dollars and the agency that they are using requires nearly 8000 up front for the dossier (that doesn't include the home study money!). most people don't have that kind of money lying around...well, at least we don't! but that doesn't change the desire God puts on your heart or what He has called you to! that is when fundraising comes in!

here you can read about how exactly you can partner with lara and nathan (and lylah) to bring their baby (her sibling) home from africa.

"religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world" james 1:27

thanks in advance for your help!

11 months!

2011-02-15T06:57:00.002-06:00

i'll start by saying, this months photo shoot was the HARDEST yet! it took some serious tag teaming. :)

so exactly 4 weeks from to day, bella joy will be 1. ONE! how is that possible!? today we are celebrating 11 months! i'm sure we will have lots of fun and we are thankful that it will likely include playing outside!

this month has been another one of those amazing-learn-something-new-every-second kind of months. we laugh, A LOT!

at 11 months bella joy:
-loves giving kisses. she gives people kisses. she gives bebe and poppy kisses when we do facetime on the phone. she gives her babies kisses. she gives animals on puzzles kisses. she loves to give kisses.
-says mama and dada (sometimes we are pretty sure she says other things like bye bye, hi, dog) and signs more and water.
-LOVES bread!! we usually make grilled cheese (with veggies snuck in) at least once a day and she gobbles it all up!
-takes steps. crawling is still the preferred method, but if she would realize that walking would get her places faster, i think walking it would be. she takes a few steps and then drops to her knees and crawls the rest of the way.
-sleeps through the night and takes 2 naps a day.
-still has 4 bottles and 3 meals a day. (although today we are going to start substituting some whole milk and work toward milk in sippy cups--right now she just drinks water out of her sippy cups).
-in the afternoon when she hears the garage door open, she gets SO SO SO excited! to say the girl loves her daddy is an understatement.
-can follow simple instructions like "get your paci" or "give baby a kiss".

so now with 2 baby showers for my SIL and coming niece behind us, we are in FULL birthday party planning mode. oh what fun the next month will be!!

i'm not complaining...

2011-02-09T15:37:00.002-06:00

...just a minor vent, as i sit in my warm little house in the country with 5 inches of snow on the ground and more falling from the sky. i'm not a snow hater. i do prefer spring and warmer weather, but a snow hater i am not. but here are a few things that i am very very tired of...

-my husband not being able to make it home from work because of snow on our country roads. seriously sick of it.

-people telling people not to be snow haters. one of my facebook friends statuses today made me cringe! it said something along the lines of how much they loved the snow and that snow haters should stop hating because snow lovers don't hate on the warm weather that we get 3/4 of the year. now, maybe we shouldn't complain about the snow, but i'm pretty sure...no, i am POSITIVE that people complain just as much when it is 100 degrees outside. AND if your husband couldn't get home from work, you would be annoyed too!

-people saying that everyone is driving like they are 80..."its just snow!" yeah, that drives me bananas too. go into a ditch just one time with your crying baby girl in the back seat and see if you still drive 60 in the snow! when you have a child in your car, you are going to drive a little differently, no matter what the weather is like!

ok, thats the end of my vent. the snow in my backyard is beautiful! but the snow on the road in front of my house is not so much. sometimes i wish all of our roads where tunnels so that the snow wouldn't get on them. we are definitely looking forward to the warmer weather that is being predicted for the coming weekend.

meatless monday

2011-01-24T18:13:00.002-06:00

in an effort to save a little money on groceries this year, we have implemented meatless monday! tonight's dinner was delicious and filling. my sweet hubby is a meat eater if i've ever seen one, so i'm very thankful that he is on board with this. and i was even more thankful when he took his first bite of this meal and said "that is actually REALLY good!" and then when he finished he said "and that was super filling!" yay!

you too can make this delicious cheesy green bean skillet by following this link to finding joy in my kitchen! "SnoWhite" has tons of wonderful recipes! she is actually my go-to site for finding "made from scratch" recipes.

familybook

2011-01-23T16:20:00.001-06:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

10 months!

2011-01-17T22:27:00.002-06:00

saturday bella turned 10 months old! we are in the double digits and 2 months shy of a year. our little darlin' didn't disappoint on making her self seem so big this weekend either! she is doing new things daily, and often multiple new things in a day!

at 10 months you:

are wearing mostly 9 month clothing and the occasional 12 month clothing. but only when wearing your cloth diapers. this past weekend on a trip home we used disposables for the first time in 6 or 7 months and realized that bella is a lot smaller than her cd's make it seem!
still have 4 milk feedings a day and 3 meals (kind of) a day. you have been on somewhat of a hunger strike for a few weeks. you still gobble up breakfast but lunch and dinner are hit and miss.
have 8 teeth! and you know how to use them (and how you shouldn't use them too...biting!) you love to take little bites of your cheerios and other snacks.
would crawl 24/7 if we would let you...and we don't because you must sleep!
take 2 naps a day. one around 9 and one around 2.
go to bed for the night at 7. when teething isn't bothering you, you sleep until 6 or 7 am.
can clap your hands! (one of the new things from the weekend!)
can sign more! (another new thing!)
can stand up without pulling up on anything, but you still mostly use things to pull up. and you "cruise" all over the place.
are really starting to enjoy walking with your push toy.

so as sweet cindy starr taught us tonight, we will keep playing, praying, persevering, and preparing you through your growth and development. happy 10 months (and 2 days) baby girl!

follow up...

2011-01-11T07:05:00.002-06:00

so week 1 of goals for the new year wasn't too bad. as for our family goals, we mostly kept them. i mean, we didn't miss any of our bible in a year readings, we memorized our scripture for the week (this week is matthew 1:23). we prayed together a few times (not every day though). we did NOT have 3 intentional times together. so sad for that. but we aren't giving up!

my personal goals went pretty well too. i didn't wake at 530 every morning but i did work out 4 of the 5 weekdays. and i believe that i have lost 2 lbs! i'd say thats pretty good for 1 weeks in. i started reading my first book (which i've been wanting to read for a long time now) treasuring God in your traditions. i'm very excited about this book. and i really should be able to finish it quickly considering how short it is...but we shall see. :) i made bread on sunday and used it for our lunch sandwiches yesterday. it was very yummy but far from perfect, so i shall keep trying. i've been clipping coupons some (and have had adam print some coupons at work since we have no ink in our printer) and have some kashi coupons that will allow me to get 3 boxes of cereal for a little over 2 dollars. yes, the goal is to not buy cereal as frequently, but when its that cheap, i think its ok!

bella is doing great with her goals! :) she is standing without holding onto things for longer periods of time each day. she still doesn't associate sounds with things to make words, but i know it won't be long! how on earth is she going to be 10 months old this week!? goodness, make a momma cry.

how are you doing on your 2011 goals?!

goodbye 2010....hello 2011!

2011-01-02T20:33:00.004-06:00

happy new year! 2010 was so good to us. we had our first full year in our first house. we welcomed our first child. we celebrated our first niece's first birthday. we celebrated 2 years of marriage. we spent lots of fun time with friends and family! i had these great plans to make a month by month post about what we did each month with pictures and everything....but i don't know how to put the pictures in order, so it would be confusing :)

one night last week, adam and i sat and discussed our goals for 2011. we created individual and family goals. i'm hopeful that this will be a year of great growth for us and i'm hopeful that with a little accountability, i'll keep up with my goals!

family goals:
-read the Bible in a year. our awesome small group leaders got each couple in our small group and one year Bible for Christmas. so far, we haven't missed a day!
-memorize a scripture a week. operation Christmas child has a little resource that is a verse a week for the year. we are starting it now. week 1 is Isaiah 9:6. we will work on memorizing it each day this week. then next week we will get a new verse. i'm very excited about this goal.
-train for the haubstadt sommerfest 5k. 2 weeks before we found out i was pregnant with bella joy, we ran this race and i ran the whole thing without stopping! i want to be in that kind of shape again. its not til june, so hopefully thats enough time!
-intentional time at least 3 times a week. this is for adam and i. we don't have a scheduled date night. so our hope for 2011 is to spend intentional face time in real conversation with each other at least 3 times a week.
-have a monthly budget meeting. (we should have been doing this already!!!)
-daily FAMILY prayer time. (also, should have been doing this already!)
-thankful thursdays. this is in the works...but it will be dinner with a friend, couple, or family (or maybe someone we don't even know yet!) we are hopeful that this will be kind of our ministry where we can provide dinner for someone who may need it. and sometimes it will just be dinner with friends!

adam's goals:
-lead our family more effectively.
-train for a triathlon (pending finding a bike for DIRT cheap!)

emily's goals:
-read 10 books (i need to go ahead and chose those books.)
-be a more cost effective menu planner/couponer/baker. i started making adam's granola bars last year and that inspired me to want to make more things from scratch in hopes of saving money. so we no longer buy granola bars or tortillas and hope to stop buying bread in the very near future. it is also our hope to stop buying cereal (or buy it much less frequently) and have more homemade things for breakfast (eggs, waffles, granola, etc.)
-lose 25 lbs. i can't really use the excuse "i just had a baby" anymore :) she is nearly 10 months old! so starting tomorrow, i will rise at 530 and elliptical or work out some other way for at least 30 minutes each weekday. this is going to be very very difficult for me, as i love my sleep, but i know that once i get into the routine i will love it and i will have WAY more energy!

bella joy's goals:
-learn to walk.
-turn 1!
-go to story time at the library.
-associate mama and dada with the people :)
we couldn't leave boo out!

the jochims are very excited about 2011 and hope you are too! do you have any goals for 2011?!

9 months!

2010-12-15T20:50:00.002-06:00

today my baby girl is 3/4 of a year old. 9 months has flown! it is so hard to believe that after her 9 month check up on friday, the next time we will see dr. fraser is at her ONE YEAR check up!

bella joy holding her moose.
so big!

standing in her cradle :)

at 9 months, our girl is doing new things each day. she never sits still! she is always crawling somewhere or pulling up on something. she says more sounds each day. she even knows how to click her tongue! it is the sweetest thing! she still loves her bath time more than anything. her favorite toys are her push toy, ball popper, little people nativity, and a little phone that her auntie amanda gave her as an early Christmas present. she gets super excited when you show her a picture of her self and when puppies are around. when i sign eat to her, she gets excited and smacks her lips! it really is the most amazing thing to watch her develop.

on saturday, bella's awesome "auntie" jj came to hang with her for the night while adam and i went to his work Christmas party (where we won a 32 in flat screen tv!!). she had had a rough nap day so i rocked her for a while and sang to her while she napped in my arms. as i sat and sang hymns with my girl, tears came to my eyes. i wish i could have bottled that moment up! as i sang songs of thankfulness to my awesome God, i prayed that bella joy would know Jesus and follow hard after Him. i think that 30 minutes is probably (and may always be) in my top 3 favorite moments of motherhood.

a lot has happened in our lives over the past few weeks. we grieved with some of our dearest friends as they said goodbye to their sweet baby girl. we had water issues. we lost power for 3 hours. bella joy enjoyed her first snow. and we got stranded in that same snow. God has used each of these things to show me that He is indeed in control and that in all things i must trust Him. but more on that later.

happy 9 months bella joy! we love you, more than you'll ever know!

how God showed up

2010-12-06T22:38:00.002-06:00

tonight i spent the evening with some other sweet momma's at our mops cookie swap. we ate cookies, chatted, and listened to the sweetest Christmas story. afterward, i took my baby-less time and headed to do our two-week grocery trip. i made it home just before 10 and when i came in, adam said "something is up with our water, it isn't clear". i immediately asked why he didn't call me since i had just been at the grocery, where i could have gotten some bottled water to make bella joy's bottles until our water is normal. adam and i debated about what to do. should i go back into town, or should we just wait til morning and call the water company. i thought that i would text my sweet friend lisa who lives less than a mile away to see if she was still up, assuming that she wouldn't be since it was about 1030 by this point. well, she called me a few minutes later and said "you will never believe this! i usually go to bed at 9 or 930 but i was up late shopping with some friends and just pulled into the driveway. i'm on my way to your house now!" a few minutes later, she pulled into our driveway. i went to the dining room to get my jacket and noticed that i could see her head lights in the garage. i was about to go to bed with the garage door opened! so i went to the door, nearly in tears, and received a wonderful gift of a nearly full case of bottled water for my baby girl.

God knew that our water was cloudy. He knew adam wouldn't call me to buy any. He knew i left the garage door opened by accident. He knew lisa had plenty of bottled water. He knew she was up later than usual. He knew she would pulled into my driveway which would show me that my garage door was still opened. God works things out. all the time, He is good.

so tonight, i am going to bed with clean water for my baby girl and closed garage door. and a thankful thankful heart.

from the jochims

2010-11-28T14:23:00.001-06:00

Peppermint Bliss Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

8 months!

2010-11-15T06:52:00.003-06:00

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

2010-11-14T19:09:00.002-06:00

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...

2010-11-12T12:55:00.002-06:00

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!

2010-11-11T07:17:00.002-06:00

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!

2010-11-08T07:08:00.002-06:00

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.

a year ago today

2010-10-31T20:53:00.002-05:00

last year on this very day, adam and i were joined by our parents at st. mary's in evansville to get a peek at our tiny bundle of joy. on that day we saw her (clearly) for the very first time. and we learned that indeed she would be a she and she would be isabella joy elizabeth jochim.
i dressed my belly up for a fun way to share the news with all of our friends and family. i had blue tissue paper for back up :)

today our nearly 8 month old girl joined us at the operation christmas child packing party at lhbc. she enjoyed some pumpkin for dinner and smiled at every new face that walked in. when we came home she started scooting forward instead of just backward. she also waved (ok, maybe it was a fluke, but i sure looked like a wave!) at her "auntie" ashmill and her "auntie" carly as they were leaving our house.

my word, a year makes a big difference. i wonder if i will ever make it through another halloween without getting all weepy about my first halloween with this sweet baby in my life. oh goodness, i love her so much.

fab five friday

2010-10-22T22:11:00.003-05:00

it's been a while since fab five friday has happened here. but the night was so wonderful that i thought i would end it with some things that have made my week fab.

1. RADICAL by david platt
this book is rocking my socks off. i think i'm a little over half way through it. and it is a joy to gather with like-minded women each wednesday morning to talk about what God is teaching us through this book.

2. izze sparkling pomegranate juice my sis and i had a wonderful (baby-less) date tonight where we talked over this fabulous drink. except lara had sparking blueberry. both tasted wonderful. 120 calories, 0 grams of fat, and it claims to be all natural :)

3. barnes & noble (please don't sell!!!)

b&n is where said date with my sis took place. we looked at craft books and chatted til we got to sleepy to chat anymore. we decided that we hadn't had a just the two of us hang out time since well before babies...and maybe since college....but that can't be right! we also decided that we will indeed make a habit of hanging after the babies go to sleep!

4. avocado!

i guess pre-baby i never thought about how fun it would be to share one of my very favorite foods with my child! i love to cut an avocado in half, smash one side up, dice the other, and then enjoy it with my baby girl. so far, it really is her favorite food. and i love it. someday i'll add some tomato, lime juice, and garlic and we'll share it with tortilla chips!

5. my mei tai baby carrier

ok, so it isn't the actual mei tai, it's a knock-off. but it is wonderful. i still love my (knock-off. no. handmade.) moby wrap, but this "mei tai" is so good. you can see by the look on b's face that she thinks so too. seriously, i will promote baby-wearing until the cows come home. even now that we have a happy baby, wearing her makes shopping trips so easy!

how about you? what has made your week fab?!

7 months!

2010-10-15T10:01:00.002-05:00

our baby girl is 7 months old today. we did our traditional monthly photo shoot this morning. she measures up to her moose from her grandma j in an outfit from her bebe. (yeah, i'm nerdy.)

even though b has been able to sit up for a couple of months now, i took pictures of her sitting up with her month and moose for the first time today. she is growing so fast!

bella joy, you are 7 months old today! at 7 months you are quickly out growing your 6 month clothing and are starting to wear some 9 month clothing. you are so long!

you are eating 3 meals a day and having five milk feedings a day. we are getting the hang of the eating from a spoon thing and are starting to really enjoy food. so far you have had carrots, butternut squash, sweet potato, peas, green beans, broccoli, avocado, banana, pears, rice cereal and multi grain cereal. your favorites are avocado, bananas, and sweet potatoes. actually, i think you will like any fruit!

this week you have started scooting. you get up on your hands and knees by yourself, but them instead of crawling forward you scoot backward. it is the cutest and funniest thing! i know you will be crawling in no time.

you have your two bottom middle teeth and one of your top ones is pushing through. we are so thankful that teething hasn't made you super fussy. just snotty and cough-y. :) your bottom teeth are big enough now that we see them when you smile and it is, of course, so cute!

you love people and animals. you smile when someone new enters the room and you laugh harder at dogs barking than at anything else.

we can't wait to see what you learn this month!

on the move

2010-10-11T15:59:00.002-05:00

bella boo is officially on the move. she isn't crawling. yet. i'm certain that it won't be long. this afternoon i sat on the floor in the living room and ate my lunch as baby girl played on the floor. one second i was taking a bite of my sandwich and the next bella joy had scooted off the rug and onto the floor. then she scooted under the shelf. i couldn't stop laughing! oh boy, the days are about to get really interesting! :)

progress

2010-10-07T10:12:00.003-05:00

miss bella joy is napping in her bed right now and has been for an hour and 15 minutes. this isn't the first time she has napped for so long in her bed this week. she is growing up. we are making progress. i am so proud of her, but at the same time, i'm so sad that she is growing up so fast and doesn't need me to nap anymore. ah, bittersweet.

we are also making progress with the solid food eating. this week b has started opening her mouth for the spoon! we haven't had to trick her into it anymore! she still isn't consuming tons of solids, but we are making progress and it is good. she has had carrots, butternut squash (or squtternut bosh for all of you friends fans), sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, broccoli, and she will have avacodo this weekend. then its on to fruits and 3 meals a day! wish us luck :)

and the photo at the top is courtesy of my awesome bff ashmill. she took some family photos of us this weekend and we supported her trip to africa. check out her website and read about her trip. she is an awesome photographer!

solid foods

2010-09-23T16:23:00.003-05:00

a couple of weeks ago, we started b on solids. cereal first, which by the first photo, you'd think she really enjoyed. but please, don't let her fool you.

this child hates rice cereal. and have you tasted it!? if you have, you know why she isn't a fan.

so after a week of rice cereal we moved onto carrots. don't you just love her reaction!?

i really thought that since i worked so hard making baby food carrots for my girl, that she'd surely love them! (if you have ever made baby food carrots, you know that it is not hard. not even a little bit. i didn't work hard at all, but aren't they beautiful!?)

yeah, she isn't really a fan of the carrots either. so we are carrying on. trying other veggies and soon fruits will follow. i am hopeful that eventually this girl will love all the tasty treats i put before her!

but for now, i will continue tricking her into opening her mouth and then laugh when she sits in disgust with the food just chillin' on her tongue.

if you have a baby, what was his or her favorite veggie when they started getting solids?

i'm going to jackson's

2010-09-20T15:55:00.003-05:00

b had her first trip to jackson's orchard on saturday morning! it was wonderful! the weather was still cool, the crowds hadn't arrived yet, and there were pumpkins galore!!! and our big girl had a good ol' time sitting next to them and playing with the dried grass! we love fall (except the high in bg today was 101...but who's counting!?)

give thanks
lounging in the pumpkin bin

my big girl :)

6 months!!

2010-09-16T19:42:00.002-05:00

ok, so i haven't blogged in a whole month! sorry. i'll be better.

bella joy is 6 months (and 1 day) old!! how did my baby get to be a half of a year old!?!? she is growing so fast!

at 6 months:
-you are wearing 6 months clothing. you are still squeezing into a few 3-6 months things, but are almost exclusively 6 months.
-you can sit like an old pro! each day you get better and better. you love sitting with the big kids!!
-you still enjoy your exersaucer and play mat but would rather sit and play with toys.
-you have 1 tooth and another that isn't far behind!
-you roll all over the place. sometimes you roll onto your tummy and you get mad, but for the most part you enjoy tummy time.
-you eat rice cereal...if you can call it eating. you really don't like it so far, but you will be eating carrots and bananas soon!
-you are still part time breastfed, part time formula fed. momma just can't seem to give up our time together and still gets so sad when i think about not having enough milk to nurse you exclusively.
-you love your daddy! sometimes during the day, i show you a picture of him and you get so excited!
-you are napping in your bed more! now if only we could get you to stay napping for longer periods of time :)
-you still sleep like a rock star at night!
-you have started getting on your hands and knees like you want to crawl and i just know you will be doing so before we know it!

bella joy, you are our joy! we love you so much! what a great HALF OF A YEAR we have had! we can't wait to see all of the great things you learn in the next 6 months!!

now and then

2010-08-17T07:38:00.002-05:00

my sweet friend jenny did a "then and now" post a few days ago. and i thought it was so fun to see her precious twinsies last summer vs. this summer! so because i am dumb about putting pictures in order on blogger, ours is a now and then post!

first, this is a little family photo taken just this summer (in july actually). look at bella boo stylin' and profilin'.

this is a photo of adam and i just 2 or 3 days after we found out we were expecting (in july of 09) at j-creek!

my how times have changed! life as two was so much fun, but my oh my how much more fun life as three is! b sure does keep us on our toes and laughing!

5 months!

2010-08-16T08:07:00.002-05:00

yesterday, my sweet baby girl turned 5 months! really? already!? look how big she looks! i get weepy every time i compare her new monthly picture with her 1 month picture. she is growing so fast!

at 5 months:

you are wearing 3-6 month clothing, but quickly out growing the 3 months end of that because you are so long!
you love to play in your exersaucer!
you love bath time more and more each time. it is so fun to watch you splash excitedly in the water.
and speaking of excited, you get so excited when you see familiar faces. you get a big open mouth smile and kick your legs like crazy!
you make real big girls laughs.
you can roll over, but you don't seem to want to very often.
you can not sit up unassisted, but you will be soon!
you enjoy tummy time. you prop yourself up and often times seem as though you are going to stand on your head because your legs are so strong.
you put EVERYTHING in your mouth! fingers, toys, feet, other people's fingers.
you are nursing and being formula fed. you watch us like a hawk when we eat. don't worry baby girl, you get real food in a month!

bella boo, we love you so much! we love to watch you grow and learn. i wonder what fun new things we will get ourselves into this month!?

on gisele and breastfeeding

2010-08-10T20:50:00.002-05:00

ok, so if you've read my blog in the past 5 months, you know good and well that i have been doing everything in my power to nurse my baby girl and that it is my deepest desire to give her my breast milk until her first birthday. so when i was watching good morning america last week and heard the story of gisele bundchen saying that it should be a "worldwide law" for women to breastfeed for the first 6 months of her baby's life, i was a little taken aback. i wasn't angry. i think it brought my feelings of inadequacy back all over again.

for the first 5 or so weeks of sweet bella joy's life i nursed her whenever she cried. it was around that time that we recognized there was an issue and we went to see the lactation consultant. that is when we discovered the issue with b's tongue. at her 2 month check up dr. f referred us to an ent. we couldn't get in for another month. and then when the ent decided surgery was necessary, he couldn't get us in for another month.

so here we are, 4 months old-starting our nursing journey. i pumped like a mad woman for 4 months in anticipation for this day of surgery. i began nursing my baby girl regularly 2 days after surgery. at first it seemed like everything was going to go wonderfully! but i think b just had some extra healing she needed to do and she just wasn't really that hungry still. when she got her appetite back, we quickly realized that i didn't have enough milk to satisfy our growing girl's hunger.

i do not regret going ahead and having the surgery, as she would have had to have it in a few months anyway, but i am very sad that i can't provide breast milk for my sweet baby girl.

so i know that gisele has taken back what she previously said. and i'm sure she didn't mean it when she said it in the first place. i do agree that "breast is best" and i personally think that all women should give it a go. but man, is it so much harder than i ever expected, emotionally. i wasn't breastfed as a baby, and i turned out fine-so i know i shouldn't feel like an inadequate mother. we are still trucking along and praying for a miraculously increased milk supply :).

thats all. i felt this way before gisele made her grand statement, it just made me want to talk about it.

happy first birthday lylah mae!

2010-08-07T06:38:00.003-05:00

last year at this time, i was very sleepily waiting in the hospital with my mom and dad for the arrival of my very first niece! my sister had called at around 230 am to say that her water broke. a few minutes later she called back and told me not to go to the hospital yet, but i was already half way there! :) i met lara and nathan in the parking lot and walked up the labor and delivery with them. i waited. then i went to kroger to get a magazine, a sudoku book, and some disposible razors for nathan. then i waited. then mom and dad arrived and we waited together. what a wonderful day of waiting it was! when we heard brahm's lullaby play, dad and i looked at each other and cried. i'll never forget the first time i laid eyes on that baby girl! i think i was the proudest aunt ever!!!

auntie em and lylah mae just a little while after birth
lylah mae with her very first cupcake, one year later.

happy happy birthday lylah mae! you have brought so much joy to our lives this year! you make us laugh. you love your baby cousin bella! and she loves you! and i do too!

we're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. how about you!?

2010-08-02T09:23:00.002-05:00

saturday, we took advatage of some pf changs gift cards and some free zoo tickets and made a little trip to nashville with adam's parents. we enjoyed a lunch of lettuce wraps, crispy honey chicken, and mu shu chicken. and then headed to ashmill's house to head to the zoo! b did such a great job!

b with the elephants!
b with a scary snake! :)

we decided that since we were at the pf changs on west end, we couldn't make the trip to nashville without taking bella joy to the place where her momma and daddy's romance began! so we headed over to centennial park for a few photos with the parthenon.

our family of 3!

the cutest baby girl on the planet with her daddy at the parthenon!

we had such a fun day! we were all stinky and exhausted when we got home, but it was well worth it! and the best of all, it was FREE to us!! thank you west chester, OH pf changs for thinking your services was bad enough to give us gift cards, pf changs for emailing us a free order of lettuce wraps, ashley miller for the free ticket, and humana for making saturday free zoo day for grandparents!

the big day

2010-07-23T22:54:00.002-05:00

we started our day at 515 am. i rolled out of bed. i pumped, packed b's diaper bag, packed bottles and accessories into the pump and then got myself ready. we were out the door at 6. adam drove his car into town and his sister amanda, bella, and i rode together. we didn't really say much on the way. when we got to the hospital, we checked in and waited. they called us back pretty quickly. they brought us a teenie tiny hospital gown, check b's heart and temperature. and then we waited some more. we played. we sang. we bounced. pastor jason came in and prayed with us and encouraged us. adam noticed that b's hospital gown said "soooooooooo big!" all over it so we sang "my God is so big" as a family. when my mom and dad arrived, we were still waiting for someone to come and talk to us. b started to get fussy, but thankfully i was able to get her to sleep.
after lots of waiting...at about 805 (surgery was supposed to start at 8) dr. sims came in and asked if we had any questions. we didn't. then the nurse came back in. then the anesthesiologist. we asked him a couple of questions and then they took my sleeping baby girl from me. i cried. when we got back to the waiting room we had two sweet friends from church waiting with amanda (thank you lisa and irene!). it was wonderful to have people there to talk to. if it would have just been adam and me, we would have cried together until they told us our girl was out. we had probably been waiting for about 15 minutes when the sweet volunteer called us to the phone. dr. sims was on the line. he told me that she was out and doing great. he did give her two stitches just to hold the cut. he said that in cases like this he likes to do stitches so that the tongue doesn't just grow back to where it was. he told me that b had 1 1/2 to 2 cm of extension. we sat down and gave everyone the scoop. and i called my sis. then we waited a little longer. eventually a nurse came to get us and we rushed back to the room only to find that it was empty! so we waited some more. :) when they brought us our baby girl she wasn't really crying. when she saw our faces, she smiled and i cried again. i took her and gave her her bottle.

while i was giving her her bottle i noticed blood coming out and i flipped out and cried some more. the nurse assured me that she was fine and she sucked down nearly 6 ounces of breast milk like it was her job!

after she finished her bottle, she smiled and talked to us as if nothing had changed. (minus the occasional blood coming from her mouth).

we love our baby girl so much!

my dad works nights. he got home at about 4am and he and mom left for bg at 5 am. they arrived at about 730 and left at about 915. my dad is at work tonight too. talk about an awesome bebe and poppy/mom and dad!!!!

after mom and dad left, b spit up some nasty bloody milky stuff. the nurse again assured us that she was fine. adam left for work at about 930 and amanda, b, and i were back in alvaton by 1030.

b has had a great day. she is eating (from at bottle still at this point) like a champ. it is VERY hard to keep a 4 month old from putting her hands in her mouth. she has had a little more bleeding this evening, but over all she is doing wonderfully!

we are so thankful that our God is so BIG, so strong and so mighty-there's nothing our God can not do!

surgery week

2010-07-21T06:48:00.002-05:00

as you may or may not know-sweet bella joy is having a minor surgery on friday morning. we have been working toward this since she was 2 months old. her pediatrician didn't think it was needed, but after seeing dr. sims, he felt that it was. she is having a frenulectomy (or having her tongue clipped) in hopes that our feeding issues will be no more (and i will be able to nurse my baby girl!!!). please pray that the surgery would be quick, that dr. sims would not have to put in a stitch, that adam and i would have a peace that surpasses all understanding, and that b would recovery quickly and feeding issues would be obsolete!

in more happy and fun news, at her pre-op appointment, b's weight was 14 lbs and she was 25 inches! she is growing growing growing!! her 4 month check up will actually be a 4 1/2 month check up on july 30th.

lake cumberland-bella joy's first vacation!

2010-07-18T17:58:00.003-05:00

since february we've been planning our long weekend trip to lake cumberland. you see, my daddy turned 50 in february and we wanted to do something extra fun to celebrate! so we waited until their shutdown from work and planned our little family vacay. we had so much fun!

bella "kayaked" with her daddio!
my sister's little fam and my little fam in lake cumberland.

bebe and her girls!

poppy and his girls at the hatchery.

our happy little family!

we had a really fantastic house with a beautiful lake view. we kayaked/canoed, swam, played games, and ate some delicious food a la daddy (my daddy is a PHENOMENAL cook!). all in all, i think b's first vacation was a big hit! i wonder what her next vacay will be!?

4 months!

2010-07-15T06:22:00.003-05:00

somehow, my baby girl is already 4 months old! my my the time flies. we started the morning right by taking bella joy's monthly shot with her moose! she is so much fun.

this week she started sleeping in her crib. she usually wakes us with cries, but this morning at about 515 we started to hear some jabbers in the monitor. she never cried. at about 545 adam went in to check on her. and she was turned sideways in her crib and was about to roll over! yes, about to ROLL OVER! she is getting so big so fast!

at 4 months, bella is wearing mostly 3 months clothing. she can sometimes wear things that are 3-6 months. she is starting to love toys. she especially loves her rhino lovey, her eric carle ladybug, her letter links, her purple eared moose, and her crinkley lion. she smiles all the time. she laughs once in a while. and boy is she a jabber box!

bella joy, we love you so much! happy 4 months baby girl!

look who's growing up!

2010-07-13T06:57:00.002-05:00

a few weeks ago, hubs and i discussed when we would have bella joy sleep in her room for the night. we decided that it would be best if we have her in her crib by the time she was 4 months old. well, 4 months will be here on thursday. so last night we took the plunge. you see, our sweet girl had been sleeping in her pack n play next to our bed since the day we brought her home. don't judge. so last night, when i snuggled my baby girl to sleep and placed her in her crib like a big girl it was incredibly hard for me to go to sleep. and of course, i cried. her are some photos to document our baby girl who is growing up way too fast for my liking.

snuggles with momma.

sleeping soundly in her crib like a big girl!

oh i love that baby!

she did a great job. she fussed a little at around 3. thats when daddio went to give her her paci back. probably around 4 she fussed again and we brought her in for some more momma snuggles. oh baby girl, please please always love momma snuggles.

bathroom redo

2010-07-12T13:45:00.004-05:00

i've been promising this update for a while. and its finally here thanks to a very sweet friend of mine :) let me know what you think of our new bathroom!

what's in the garden?!

2010-06-17T19:32:00.003-05:00

our first garden is making beautiful progress! we go out to look at it every few days. we obviously haven't gotten to eat anything from our sweet little garden yet, but i'm very proud of it so far! i just need to get rid of the weeds...and i don't really know how.

watermelon! i'm really hoping that we get at least one!

corn!

sweet little grape tomatoes

yep, that's a little bell pepper!

we've also got some green bean plants growing, but no green beans yet. we also have big boy and better boy tomatoes, which are sprouting! and we have broccoli...which the bunnies ate, but i think we fixed that problem now! i'm so excited to walk out to the back yard and eat a tomato!

happy happy 3 months bella joy!

2010-06-17T06:12:00.003-05:00

our baby girl was 3 months old as of tuesday. that is 1/4 of a year. how is it even possible!? we had her 3 month photos taken on saturday and i can hardly wait to see how they turn out! she was a champ until the very end when she got just a tad fussy.

in bella's 3 months of life, she has spent time in 4 states (ky, in, tn, & oh). she has been swimming numerous times! she loves being outside. she loves her sassy letter links, her bouncey seat, her rhino lovey, and her eric carle lady bug. she loves to smile and jabber. she is starting to get into more of a routine. she goes to sleep in her bed (which is still the pack n play by our bed, but the goal is to have her in her room by 4 months) between 9 & 10 and usually sleeps until 6. and then starting at 6 am she eats every three hours until 9 pm. she usual takes a good nap at about 7 am and then takes another good nap in the afternoon with cat naps in between. i can't believe how much she is growing.

bella did have her appointment with dr. sims on monday. for those of you who do not know, the appointment was to check out her tongue which is "tied" or connected to much underneath. our pediatrician referred us to see dr. sims mostly for my peace of mind. well dr. sims does believe that we should have bella's tongue clipped if we want to breastfeed. so my big question was "if we don't do it now, will it be needed later?" he said that if we want to bottlefeed, it is fine to let it go until she is a year old, but at that point we will have to do it. we have opted to go ahead and have the procedure done, as it has been a great desire of mine to nurse my baby until she is 1. the only thing is that they couldn't get us in until july 23rd and she will have to be asleep for the procedure (which means: mask over face to make it happen). this is the part that scares me the most! i know she will be a champ just as she has been with every thing else in her little life.

bella joy we love you more than we ever thought possible! happy 3 months baby girl!

coming soon...

2010-06-15T06:01:00.002-05:00

coming soon

bathroom redo
happy 3 months to bella
bella's first camping trip
whats in the garden

happy tuesday!

fab 5 friday

2010-06-11T09:40:00.003-05:00

is it friday again already!?!?! join with me and emily and so many others and lets talk about some things that have made our weeks fab!

1. the vintage pearl. it has made all of my weeks since mothers day fab really. but this fun friday they are hosting a giveaway-and although i probably won't win, the thought of winning makes my week fab!

2. org junkie!! i love finding new recipes here. and love when bella is good and happy while i'm cooking!

3. finding joy in my kitchen. this is actually my number 1 go to recipe site. i've made 2 things from here just this week! both are delicious and have made my week more fab!

4. facebook! i'm a stay at home mom, need i elaborate more?

5. hulu!!!!! lightning struck our house on wednesday, and it fried our tv. now i am no tv addict, but i'm a stay at home mom, so having a little back ground noise once in a while is nice. enter hulu. yeah for good tv on hulu!

join in! what has made this week a little more fab for you!?

**sorry this turned into website edition!

whats been going on

2010-06-10T06:16:00.004-05:00

we have had a lot going on lately. bella is growing so fast, i can hardly believe it! memorial day weekend, we had a fun trip to west chester, oh with bella's aunt amanda and uncle andrew. b had lots of firsts that weekend! on memorial day we had a cookout/swim party at my mom and dad's house. adam left us there on monday night and bella and i stayed with my family part of the week and adam's the other part. we had a great time, but boy were we glad to see alvaton on saturday night!

bella has been smiling lots lately!
yep, bella had her first (of many) trip to ikea! she was such a rockstar. she also went to pf changs for the first time while we were there.

she went swimming. and she loved it!

she had her first tea party in honor of her "auntie" jj, who is getting married ONE MONTH from today!!!!!!

oh yeah, and she went swimming some more! she really does love the water, which is great, because i do too!

in other news, while bella and i were away, adam was able to get the bathroom completed! thank goodness! pictures of the transformation to come. oh and last night our house got struck by lightning...which fried our tv and dvd player. everyone keeps saying insurance will pay for it if we pay the deductible, but if we don't have money for a new tv what makes you think we have money to pay for the deductible!?

fab 5 friday

2010-06-04T21:43:00.002-05:00

well, i've been mia this week. and i'll post more on what bella and i have been doing later. (although this post will elude to some of it!) its friday and this week has been fab! so as usual i am joining emily in talking about what has made this week great.

1. swimming! summer is here! bella has been swimming 4 times this week and she LOVES the water!! i'm so glad.
2. pf changs. we went on sunday night and had a great time. i love love love me some pf changs. and thanks to the cassetty fam for the gift card!

3. olive garden! my precious father-in-law is turning 50 tomorrow. we went this evening to celebrate and olive garden and boy did it ever hit the spot!

4. i have had cable this week and my go to channel is always hgtv. i wish you could order by the channel and not have to get a big cable package. hgtv would so be on my list.

5. IKEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes, quite possibly my favorite place on this earth. sunday we also visited ikea and it was fantastic.

more on this past week to come, but until then, what has made your week a little happier?

fab 5 friday

2010-05-28T05:45:00.003-05:00

wahoo that it is friday again! and if that isn't fab enough, lets join emily in sharing what great things have made our weeks fab!!

1. yes, that is a tankini wearing woman. and no, this hasn't turned into "that" kind of a blog. :) this nursing (read: pumping) momma can't fit into her bathing suit tops from the past 2 summers. so i took my brown skirty type bottom and looked for an alternative top. since targets suit separates were on sale this week, it was my first stop. i love polka dots so this brown mossimo tankini top is what i chose. and for just 14 dollars! it has a neck strappy that this girl is not wearing. i'm very excited to take bella on her first swimming adventure now!

2. living hope baptist church! i mean, this place is fab to me every week, but especially this week. see, i was a full time employee of lhbc up until march 12 (the friday before bella joy was born). now b and i make weekly visits to see our sweet former co-workers. it always brings joy to my heart and made this week extra fab! women love on my baby girl and i get some good quality adult convo. what could be better!?
3. sassy letter links! i know what you are thinking, "your baby is only 10 (and a half) weeks old!" no, bella is not linking these together nor does she know her abc's. however, i have a baby girl who LOVES to kick her feet. so i put these letter links at her feet and she kicks away. she enjoys the sound very much. and it makes momma happy to put some of her toys to use!

4. the Jesus storybook bible. if you have children, know a child, or plan to have children, you should own this book. it is fantastic. each story points to Jesus. sometimes they bring a tear to my eye and sometimes i feel like i learn just as much, if not more, from the stories as my baby girl will.

5. oh sonic, how i love thee. my drink of choice is a cherry limeade. i often dream of going to happy hour everyday. wednesday night before small group i asked the hubs if he wanted to go get a cherry limeade. he said (ever-so-seriously), "but it's not happy hour!" i lovingly told him that it was ok, i just wanted a c-lime. so we went. and it was maybe the best cherry limeade of my life.

alright friends, join in or just comment what has made your week extra fab!

do you need a photographer?

2010-05-27T21:13:00.002-05:00

if you do, you should check out my friend ashmill. she is incredibly talented and if you book by july 31, she'll do your session for $100! thats a steal!

wednesday in bowling green

2010-05-26T13:58:00.002-05:00

i went into town this morning to run a few errands and grocery shop. while we were out, i realized that all of my facebook friends are surely thankful that i do not have an iphone because i think in facebook statuses and would have changed mine many many times in those few hours if i could have. so now, here is how some of them would have read:

emily gilliland jochim says sweet lady at the bank please work slower as you hear my baby screaming from the back seat.

emily gilliland jochim just saw oreo blizzard oreos and had to refrain from buying them.

emily gilliland jochim is being tempted in the ice cream aisle.

emily gilliland jochim is wondering why in the world her cashier is double bagging everything!?

emily gilliland jochim thinks its hilarious when, while wearing my baby, people refer to her as it, so as not to offend me.

emily gilliland jochim needs to stick to the grocery list. always.

emily gilliland jochim must stop coming to the grocery on an empty stomach.

do you ever think in facebook statuses? or maybe its just thinking in the third person.

happy happy birthday!

2010-05-20T12:15:00.002-05:00

i am so thankful that the amazing man was born 24 years ago! he is an amazing husband and i am so honored to call him my best friend! happy birthday, babe! bella and i love you so much and are so grateful for your leadership and provision for our little family!

**and i do believe this is my 100th post! that is also something to celebrate!

chore chart

2010-05-19T11:06:00.002-05:00

i recently implemented a chore chart in the jochim house. i found that i was getting super overwhelmed by the messiness of our house and was wanting it to all be clean at once. well, when you have a 2 month old, that isn't possible! she demands a lot of time, which i'm totally ok with. so to focus my time and cause less stress, the chore chart came about. i created it to just have a little to do each day and have nothing on saturday and sunday since we are often out of town and when we aren't, we want to spend time together as a family! so here is what we've got:

M-floors, diapers, adam mow

T-dust, laundry

W-grocery, rugs, adam take trash to road

R-floors, diapers

F-laundry, bathroom

daily-load/unload dishwasher, make beds, keep counters/tables free from clutter, empty trash when needed, water garden when needed.

we have laminate floors throughout our house. they get dusty pretty quick, which is why floors are 2 times a week. we have a large area rug in our living room and bedroom which need to be vacuumed. actually, i will probably end up doing the one in the living room more than once a week, but we'll see. i feel that 2 scheduled laundry days a week will keep us having clothes to wear everyday and will make it to where the laundry isn't piled up so much that it takes all day to complete. that usually makes 4-5 loads of laundry a week (not including cloth diapers).

how do you divide the chores in your house? do you have a schedule to the madness?

2 month check up

2010-05-18T20:33:00.002-05:00

miss bella joy had her 2 month visit to see dr. fraser today! our baby girl is growing wonderfully. she is 11 lbs 1/2 oz. and 23 1/4 in. she had 3 shots and an oral vaccine. she cried like crazy when the nurse initially put the shots in her legs, but she calmed quickly, thanks to her awesome daddy!

dr. fraser is a hoot. he said "well her head has always been big!" he also informed us that she is above average in length and weight as well. we love our big baby girl so much! and we can't wait to watch her grow even more!

as for baby girl's tongue issue, dr. f has referred her to see dr. sims an ent here in bg. we are hopeful that the issue will be solved if indeed these sweet doctors see it to be an issue. i'm hoping that the appointment will be soon!

2 months old!

2010-05-15T11:09:00.003-05:00

well another month has flown by, and bella joy is 2 months old!! we are going to celebrate by witnessing our sweet friends kasey and jr get married! how sweet of them to have a party for our baby girl's 2 month birthday!

bella is getting so big! she has outgrown her newborn clothes. she is exclusively wearing 0-3 month attire. she is so close to being able to hold her head up. she smiles at us! she is only waking up one time each night (for the most part)! she focuses on us and objects. she really enjoys looking at herself in her little elephant mirror that hangs above her carseat in the car. i can't believe how quickly our baby girl is growing up!!

fab 5 friday

2010-05-14T08:01:00.003-05:00

its friday! wahoo! so i'm joining emily and some others to share what has made my week fab! i think next week i will do a people edition because, almost always, i think of people who have made my week great before things...which is a good thing i guess.

1. the vintage pearl. as i said in my mother's day post, my sweet baby girl was thoughtful enough to get me a sweet little necklace for my first mother's day! the sweetness of that beautiful gift has definitely made my week better. you should check out the website! they have some fantastically beautiful goods!
2. my canon digital rebel xs. with a baby as cute as miss bella joy around, it is nice to have a good camera within arms reach! so thankful to be able to reach for my handy dandy rebel to document our sweet baby girls life!

3. the biggest loser couples! as you can see by the photo below, i love daris! actually, i don't want michael or koli to do poorly either. i'd be so happy to see the three of them as the final three! we will see in just a couple of weeks! i look forward to tuesday nights because of this show!

4. i feel like this one shouldn't follow the biggest loser...but oreo cheesequake blizzards from dairy queen! i love 'em! but only in moderation :)

5. finally our schwinn free runner jogging stroller. we purchased this the weekend of the flood with gift cards from bella's showers. i've yet to run with it (that will come soon), but i already know i will love it. it was so handy yesterday when we went out to our garden. i had bella in the stroller and was able to put all of the garden planting goods on top. its wheels are big and strong enough to make it through the grass and uneven terrain. very very handy.

ok, now tell me what has made your week fab!?

my green baby

2010-05-13T13:54:00.004-05:00

my green baby has a fabulous stash of cloth diapers. today was wash day and the following photo is evidence of why i need a clothes line. bella and i planted our garden today. we have tomatoes (3 kinds), peppers (2 kinds), broccoli, watermelon, corn, and green beans. i'm so excited to eat, eat, eat! bella wanted to pose in the garden for her poppy.

look at my little green baby with her tomato plant. she can't wait to go pick tomotoes with her momma this summer! as i walked up the hill in our backyard, wearing my baby, in the heat, carrying 2 gallons (watering can) of water, i felt so much like is was back in niger walking from the well with our friends.

**baby girl is wearing her green baby onesie in these photos. it is newborn sized and she will not be wearing again because she is getting so big!

my first mother's day

2010-05-10T10:30:00.004-05:00

i had such an awesome first mother's day. it began saturday night. when i got out of the shower, adam had bella in her bouncey seat with a card and a sweet little necklace from the vintage pearl. isn't my baby girl so thoughtful! then sunday morning we got to dedicate our baby to the Lord. we committed to have strong walks with God and to pray for our baby girl's salvation. we are so thankful to have a church family that will be praying for the same thing. anyway, here are a few photos from the wonderful day!!

momma with her girls who are now mommas.

family dedication at living hope baptist church.

my baby girl and me...with my necklace that she was so thoughtful to get for me! :)

the set up adam had going on. so so sweet!

our sweet family of 3. i am so so blessed with an amazing husband and an beautiful baby girl!

fab 5 friday

2010-05-07T07:40:00.002-05:00

its friday again, and you know what that means! its time to share your fab 5. thanks to emily for starting the fun!!!
1. this book by heather ross is fantastic! weekend sewing has lots of wonderful and simple sewing projects that are designed to be finished in a weekend (or less). i have completed 3 projects from this book and done all in one sitting. i made a skirt this week (the skirt on the front) to wear to the wedding we will be attending tomorrow. i'm a nerd and wanted us to color coordinate, so making a skirt is all i could do!

2. my tevas. i've tried to convince adam that you have to get a new pair every spring in celebration of the warm weather. this is the pair i got this year.

3. living hope yellow team. we had our first game of the season last night and boy was it a breath of fresh air! it was so fantastic to be surrounded by that many grown ups (and babies too!!) and yellow won, which was also a plus!!

4. griffs deli. my sweet friend debbie robb took me (and bella) to lunch today and griffs was our place of choice. delicious!! i recommend the santa cruz wrap-grilled. oh, and broccoli salad!

5. the bumgenius! organic all-in-one, one size, snap diaper! we started cloth this week and are off to a great start! so far, this is my favorite diaper. no stuffing, which is great. it also just is a great fit for bella so far. and sabrina, we waited to start cloth to give bella a little time to grow into the diapers (even though they are one size) and also because we got so many disposables as gifts.

ok, your turn. what made your week fab?!

so in love...

2010-05-06T16:49:00.002-05:00

with the baby girl who wears this smile :)

cloth!

2010-05-03T12:45:00.003-05:00

we originally planned to begin cloth diapering when bella was 2 months old. well, she is 7 weeks today and we are clothing it up! her little bum looks so cute in the cloth!

i think she likes them, what do you think?

stuck in alvaton :(

2010-05-02T18:30:00.002-05:00

below is the road that adam usually takes to get to work....guess he won't be driving that way tomorrow!
and this one is mt. lebanon rd. if you've ever been to our house, you've driven 2.7 miles down this road, right over this spot. you can kayak to see us if you want to now!!

we are so thankful that we are safe in our happy little home. we have no flooding in our house and i know lots of folks aren't quite as lucky. how about you? how's life where you live?

the saddest thing i've ever seen

2010-04-24T18:35:00.002-05:00

we saw docter fraser this morning. he suggested we try different bottles (since i'm basically exclusively pumping right now, although the hope is still to go back to nursing). anyway, we went to target in the monsoon to get some of said bottles. while there, we saw quite possibly the saddest thing i've ever seen.

these milk screening strips state that they are a "home test for alcohol in breast milk" because "every woman's metabolism is different".

so so sad. a product like this shouldn't have even needed to be created. such is life in a fallen world. so thankful its not my home.

sickness enters the jochim homestead

2010-04-22T21:33:00.002-05:00

tuesday night was not a happy night. bella spit up, a lot, before adam got home. as the night went on, she continued to spit up (and when i say spit up, i mean more like throw up) after every feeding. we were of course freaking out. we called the after hours number at our pediatricians office. the doc on call told us to get some pedialyte and give her 2 ounces for two feedings. so we headed to kroger to get the goods. on the way back, i had to make adam stop the car in the middle of mt. lebanon rd so i could throw up! yuck!

so when we got home, adam tried to get some pedialyte in our baby girl. she didn't want a thing to do with it. so at her next feeding, we just went back to breast milk. rewind though. i continued throwing up as the night progressed. when her next feeding rolled around at 4am, i decided i would just pump so that i wouldn't throw up on her. i headed to the kitchen to get my pumping supplies and turned back toward our room. but i didn't make it there. i collapsed in the middle of our kitchen floor. adam rushed to the kitchen. i asked him to get me some sprite. so he headed to the little coke machine down the road from our house at 4am. he brought me the trash can first so i could stay on the floor. when he got back, he helped me to our room, i pumped and he fed bella. she threw up again. and then again one more time before we were finally able to call the doctor at 8am.

she threw up again last night. but we both seem to be feeling better now. we are having a super hard time getting bella to eat, whether by breast or bottle. it is very stressful. i know i am not a terrible mother, but i feel like i am when my baby won't eat! i know she is hungry! i don't know what the issue is, but i sure hope we get it figured out soon.

**did i mention that we are redoing our bathroom which means there is no toilet in there right now, so during all of the sickness, i had to go out to the garage halfbath to do my...business. that made it was more fun! :) what is fun is that hopefully by sunday, i'll be able to show pictures of our beautiful bathroom!

another first!

2010-04-20T20:43:00.002-05:00

last night we took bella on her very first trip to pei wei! i know she is gonna love it when she gets bigger but yesterday, not so much. i took her in in her awesome (fake) moby wrap and started trying to eat my dinner while wearing her. we quickly realized she was up too high, so adam and i tried to lower her while ashmill sat and laughed. bella was getting hungry, so i nursed her in the moby wrap, or at least tried. i'm sure it was quite entertaining to anyone paying attention.

in other news, we saw the lactation consultant this morning. she didn't feel like my supply was low due to my pcos (PRAISE!) but does feel that it is low. bella's little tongue is made in a way that leads the lc to believe that it should be clipped, however our pediatrician doesn't do that. when i called his office, he said not to do it, no matter what! he said it wouldn't change our situation. so i suppose we are going with the doctors orders rather than the lc. bella was 8 lbs 9 oz at her weight check at 3 weeks. exactly 2 weeks later, she has finally surpassed her birth weight (8 lbs 15 1/2 oz) and is 9 lbs 12 oz!! go bella!!

our plan of action is a grueling one. i am supposed to feed bella every 2 hours. depending on how she nurses, i am to supplement the feeding with a bottle (whether breast milk or formula depends on our stock of breast milk). then i am to pump for at least 15 minutes to try to increase my supply. i am also taking 3 fenugreek 3 times a day. it is going to be very difficult, but if it allows us to breastfeed our baby girl, it will be so worth it! do any of you have any experience with the lactation consultant? what was your time like?

fab 5 friday

2010-04-16T15:59:00.003-05:00

i'm joining my friends emily and jenny this week and letting you in on the little things that have made my week a little better.
1. the medela pump in style breast pump has made our nursing issues a little easier. sweet bella will take a bottle with ease, even when she won't take the breast. AND i pumped over 2 ounces in one sitting today! thats a record for us! praise God! and wahoo for the pump in style!
2. KEEN FOOTWEAR!!!!! i am probably their biggest fan! and my feet got bigger during pregnancy which made some of my keens not fit. the only thing is, these shoes can be pricey. luckily, today i discovered through some great friends, that there is a store in bowling green that has various kinds of keens for only 29.99! so i got this super fun orange pair in my new size 7!

3. church's chicken. i didn't even know we had one in bowling green. but my awesome uncle don and aunt paula came to visit us this evening and brought us the delicious fried goodness! and if i made a fab 6 and 7, it would be uncle don and aunt paula. they rock!

4. the woodland bouncey seat! what a glorious invention! bella loves this thing. she is only a month old and the batteries that make it vibrate are already dead! when we have dinner or our arms just need a rest, bella happily chills here.

5. yes, april 15 made my week better. not necessarily because it was tax day, but because bella turned 1 month old! and also one of my other most favorite people in the world turned 8! so our april 15 was filled with our growing girl and xander and his awesome momma and daddy!

yay for friday and the little things that make this imperfect world a happier place! :)

1 month old!

2010-04-15T19:07:00.003-05:00

well, i don't know how it happened, but bella joy is already 1 month old! wahoo!!!! she is growing up so fast. the past few nights she has even gone to sleep at about 930! so exciting!

in the world of nursing, we've got some potentially sad news. because of my pcos, it is very likely that my milk supply is low. i am taking fenugreek and have an appointment scheduled with the lactation consultant on tuesday morning at 11. please pray that we are able to figure out a solution that will allow me to nurse bella until her first birthday.

happy first month of life outside the womb sweet baby girl! we love you so much!

nursing the baby blues

2010-04-09T22:19:00.002-05:00

before i start talking about how hard it is to feed my baby, lets look at how cute she is! :) and fair warning, this post may be graffic. if you are a boy--don't read it, and if you read it, know its graffic.

so nursing is much harder (for me) than i ever expected it to be. my awesome sister has been nursing my neice for 8 months (and going strong) and has never even had a sore anything! i am so glad for her and for lylah that it has been such a smooth process, but that is not the case for everyone. i guess going into nursing, i had the mindset of "its been easy for my sister, we share a bloodline, so its bound to be easy for me!" wrong-o! in the hospital, the tube on lansinoh and i became very close friends.

but here is what has been giving me the most trouble. bella nurses great, sometimes. but then sometimes in the evenings, i'll get her to latch on, she'll do her thing for a minute, and then she will start screaming her head off. i know good and well that she is hungry! i can't understand why i can't get her to eat! just now, she nursed for 3 minutes on each side. 3 minutes! that is not enough. yet she stops to scream and won't go back to it.

so i have tried to pump. i have only been able to get about an ounce. now i know that one ounce is not enough, even if i feed her 12 times a day. 12 ounces a day isn't enough! so i tried getting larger breast shields for the pump (which may have actually helped a little). i got these little warm/cool packs that you can put on your breasts to increase milk flow and also sooth pain right after feeding. i'm taking my vitamins and drinking plenty of water.

i really just don't know what to do at this point. of course, i always come to these conclusions on a weekend so that i can't seek medical help for days!! so i'm looking for experienced momma help, please! :) i know lots of you have nursed your babies and i know that some of you have pumped exclusively. please please give me any and all advice that you have. and please tell me if you sweet babes ever did the latch on/scream 30 seconds later thing.

it is my hope and my intention to breastfeed/feed breast milk to bella joy for her first year of life. there have been lots of times in her 3 1/2 week life that i have wanted to give up. last night i was so frustrated that i told adam that i would go back to work so we could afford to buy formula. i don't want to do that! so please help!!!!

first days home

2010-04-05T21:49:00.002-05:00

our first week(ish) at home wasn't the best. in fact, on our first day home i told adam that we should have stayed at the hospital. let me rewind though...

we went in on march 15 (monday) with the understanding that we would be dismissed on thursday march 18. when they came in wednesday morning and asked us if we wanted to go home, i was all for it! so we began doing all of our discharge paperwork. we were in no hurry. i went ahead and showered and we slowly prepared for our trek to alvaton to begin our lives as a family of three.

as soon as we got bella in the car and drove off, i started crying and i didn't stop for days! as soon as we got home, bella started crying and didn't stop for hours that night. after a few hours of her crying, we realized we had to head back into bowling green to get some rubbing alcohol for her belly button. it was magical. as soon as we started driving, she stopped crying and went to sleep. our small group was meeting, so adam suggested calling to see if we could stop by and have them pray over us. we did and they did. bella continued to sleep, so our small group leaders suggested that we stay for the study. yes, we went to small group the day we were discharged from the hospital.

when we got home from small group, bella started crying again and didn't stop until 630 the next morning. it was so bad in the middle of the night that we sure did call the nursery at the hospital and ask them what they had done with her! they asked us stupid questions like "is she hungry or dirty?" like we hadn't tried those things!

the next night was better. she only cried from 7pm to 2am. that continued for her first 2 weeks of life. my crying slowed down before that. i cried every time someone called, every time i told adam that i loved him, almost every time that she cried for the first week and a half.

there were times in those first days that i told adam that i loved bella but didn't like her very much at that moment. there were times when i told him how thankful i was for our miracle girl but that i missed him and was sad that it would never be just the two of us again. before bella arrived, i judged mothers who gave up on breastfeeding after a week or two and i judged couples who took their baby to a babysitter after a week. now those things totally make sense to me. breastfeeding is HARD! it is stressful. how do you know if your baby is getting enough!? why does she latch on and then start screaming after 30 seconds of nursing? why does it hurt so bad!? and yes, i was ready to have alone time with my husband the day we brought her home. i never thought i'd consider getting a babysitter so early in her life. when my mom and dad were here last week, adam and i left bella for about an hour just to go to lowe's and it was such a great time!

we love our baby girl dearly. we are so thankful for her and can't believe what a miracle she is! we are, however, looking forward to her sleeping normal hours so we can go to sleep at the same time and get into a routine of being a couple again.

mothers, i'm i crazy or was it this way for you too? yet-to-be-mothers, do you look at mothers or couples that do these things and think "i would never do that!"?

the day of her birth

2010-04-04T20:35:00.002-05:00

on march 14, adam and i started our day in worship and then serving our sweet kindergarten kiddos. then we came home to finish preparing our house for the arrival of our baby girl. we went to bed early and snuggled and prayed and didn't sleep tons, but more than we thought we would.

on the morning of march 15, we woke up early and got ready quickly. we were at the hospital by 7:10 (we didn't have to be there until 7:30 :)). our awesome nurse began preparations. they gave me my iv, catheter, and shaved my belly where the incision would be. then we waited. mom, dad and lara all came in to visit. then mark, sally, amanda, and cory. then i got super nauseous and weird feeling, so mom and dad came back in. before we knew it, our nurse and anesthesiologist came in and said it was time to head to surgery. it went so fast! as soon as we got into the operating room, the anesthesiologist did his thing. i was terrified of the spinal, but he was phenomenal! i didn't feel a thing and the spinal took effect IMMEDIATELY! they pinned up the blue curtain and doctor davis came in. they told me that dr. d was pinching me pretty hard and i wasn't moving and that was a good thing! then dr. d got to work. shortly after, they let adam come into the room. he came immediately to my side and held my hand and talked to me through the whole thing. as the team progressed further into surgery, we heard them say "there's a butt and that's a big butt!" then they said "there's a leg!" finally we heard "we've got a head!" and then we heard sweet bella joy's first cry!! we looked at each other and smiled and cried. finally doctor davis brought our baby girl over and we saw her for the first time.
we looked at each other and smiled and cried some more. they had adam come over and watch them clean her up a little and then handed her to him. he brought her over to me and unstrapped my arm. we looked at her, i touched her for the first time, and we smiled and cried some more. eventually they took my husband and baby girl away from me and finished the surgery. then they made me go to recovery for a whole hour!

when i was in recovery, i remember not being able to feel my legs. i kept trying so hard to move them and when i couldn't, i just laughed to myself. i think they recovery room staff probably thought i was crazy :)! after my hour in recovery was over, some kid came and handed me two photos of bella and wheeled me down the hall. i saw the whole clan standing waiting for me and they followed me to our room. i finally got to hold my baby girl for the first time. we did skin to skin and i nursed her for the first time. it was so surreal. this sweet baby that i had been dreaming about for the 9 months that i carried her, and even before that, was finally here and in my arms.

our God is so good. adam and i are so thankful that he chose us to be bella's momma and daddy. it already isn't easy, but boy is it worth it! even when she screams for 6 hours straight for no apparent reason, we are praising Jesus for her.

there is more to come on our first days home.

Jesus is risen, He is risen indeed!

2010-04-04T14:19:00.001-05:00

We are so thankful for Christ's sacrifice. And so thankful that He is alive today (and everyday)!!

Happy Easter from the Jochims :)

baby wearing

2010-04-02T16:12:00.002-05:00

a few weeks ago my sister called me and said "if i learn how to make a moby wrap, do you want one?" i had no idea what she was talking about, but i'm glad i said yes! now we are wearing our babies together and it is so much fun!

don't we look like we should be baby-wearing models in this one!?
bella loved it!

she had been crying right before this and as soon as we got her in, she conked out.

look how sweet :)

she is even smiling in this picture!!! love her.

***these babies are super simple to make, but i don't want to tell you. if you are having a baby (ie. brittney jones or amanda (chandler) hughes) please do not attempt to find out how to do this! :)

she's here

2010-04-01T20:48:00.003-05:00

well, we have internet at our house, so our blog will continue! here is a sweet picture of our girl taken today.

very soon i will post about the day of her birth, our first week at home, etc. we are in love!

good news/bad news

2010-03-11T08:18:00.002-06:00

our appointment yesterday was quite eventful! we were so excited about the chance to see our baby girl and were disappointed when we couldn't tell what in the world was going on on that screen. after swipping the happy wand across my gigantic belly a few times, the ultrasound guy says "that's a breech baby!" a few minutes later he says "that's a big baby!"

so the bad news is our big baby girl is breech. and when i say big, they are estimating 8 pounds 6 ounces which i don't think is super big, but maybe its just big because i'm such a shorty! :) i guess why the breech news is bad news is because i will be delivering by c-section. its not how i envisioned it, but God knew way back when doctors were telling me i would never have children that i would have a baby girl on march 15, 2010 and she would be delivered via c-section. He is good, all the time.

the good news is that our baby girl will be in our arms by lunch time on monday. yes, 4 days from now. monday is bella joy's auntie amanda's 25th birthday! happy quarter of a century to her, huh?! when we found out we were expecting, we joked of the idea that she may be born on amanda's birthday, but never did we think it would really happen that way!

another funny thing, yesterday i was 38 weeks, or so i thought. i promise that when the nurse at dr. d's office gave me my due date, she said it was march 24. but my chart sure does say march 27. so according to them, i'm not 38 weeks until saturday. this obviously doesn't matter even a little bit since we know we are delivering on monday, but still funny nonetheless.

please be praying on monday morning. surgery is set for 9 am. pray for adam. i know he'll be great but i'm sure he'll be nervous for me. pray for bella joy, that she is healthy and learns to nurse quickly. pray for me too, please. i am nervous, but i know that this is the plan that God had from day one and i do find peace in that.

big day

2010-03-10T09:00:00.002-06:00

today is a big day for the jochims. this afternoon at 215 we will see our baby girl via ultrasound and we can't wait. we are hoping that this will give us more of an idea of when we will meet her.

but its an even bigger day for 2 more families that i know. please be praying for them.

this family is laying there 5 year old sweet boy to rest today. please be praying for a peace that surpasses all understanding. pray for his momma. she is expecting. pray for the wellness of the baby growing inside her. praise Jesus, because sweet isaiah is now healed and will never have another surgery again.

also be praying for this family. ashmill's momma begins chemo today. she will sit through 6 hours of it. pray for comfort and strength for this amazing woman, as well as her amazing family. pray that this chemo will provide complete healing for the diagnosis that she received just weeks ago.

37 week update

2010-03-03T08:12:00.003-06:00

thats right, 37 weeks. 3 to go. if our baby was born today, she'd be considered full term and boy does that make me smile!!!

i saw dr. d yesterday for my weekly progress report. sorry if this is gross and too much info, but i am just a little over 1 cm and 70%. due to my height and bella joy's size, dr. d has requested an ultrasound for next week to try to get a closer look at her weight and position. i left his office so so thankful because regardless of when she arrives, i'll be looking at her next wednesday at around 2:15 and my sweet husband will be by my side.

dr. d also let me know that at my appointment last week i tested positive for group b strep. this just means that i will have to have antibiotics during labor and delivery. did any of you have this?

i went into my appointment yesterday trying so hard to remember the advice my sweet friend cheye had given me just last week. i was trying so hard to expect nothing. but when he said "still about 1 cm, a little more than last week, but still 1" i won't lie, i was slightly disappointed. it is hard to be so uncomfortable and think that must be leading to progress, but then it doesn't. i do know that her arrival and my progress are no surprise to God. He knows the minute we will hold her for the first time and for that i am thankful too.

so now, we anxiously await seeing our sweet girl a week from today in the form of an ultrasound. and we are ok with that.

march!

2010-03-01T08:26:00.000-06:00

well, its march 1st and that makes for one excited mommy to be. our baby girl will be in our arms sometime this month! we are so excited we can hardly stand it! sleep is getting harder and harder. braxton hicks contractions are becoming more and more frequent. and other things that happen soon(ish) before labor begins are taking place too, but i feel that they may be inappropriate to share here :)

so happy march! and hurry hurry sweet bella joy!!!