9 months!

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

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

Peppermint Bliss Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

8 months!

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

see, i'm 8 months old!

as of november 15, 2010, you are:

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

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

anniversary getaway

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

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

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

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

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

as i previously stated...

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

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

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

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

do you plan to do a Christmas card this year?

Christmas is coming!

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

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

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

we have so many wonderful blessings to count!

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

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

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



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