Herb Garden...

Mrs. Shipman and I headed to Fairview and Logans a little over a week ago on the hunt for herbs. I came home with some beautiful basil, thyme, rosemary and orange mint! How exciting! Let's see if I can manage to keep them alive...

A Providential Week

Things have been quite tight for our family over the past few months...well really since I quit working back in October. We've drastically adjusted our budget, but even still, life has a way of throwing some curve balls. And when it rains, it pours. Over the past 6 months we have had more "you've got to be kidding me" expenses than we could ever have imagined! Everything from finding out that Zak's Truck had an unknown salvaged title and couldn't be sold, to unforeseen medical bills that just kept coming.

This week our dog Daisy started acting funny. She had diarrhea in her crate one night and then the few days that followed she was just not acting herself. We knew we had to take her in, but were dreading the bill. I made the appointment, and met Zak at the vet so he could take her in. For whatever reason, I decided to stay.

When we got in the room, I immediately recognized the vet tech as a sweet girl I went to high school with. Sheepishly, I took the plunge before the vet came in the room and said, "Erica, here's the deal. We know we are going to get a hard time for not having her annual done and getting her up-to-date on all her vaccinations, but the bottom line is, we just can't afford it!" She said she totally understood and would let the vet know.  We were praying Daisy wasn't going to need x-rays done or anything extreme. Moments later, she came back in the room and with a big smile on her face she let us know that Dr. Betsy was not going to charge us for our visit!  She was still going to still give Daisy her full annual and all her vaccinations and write it off as community service! We were blown away.... We walked out of there with several medications in hand and paid $30 to get are sweet Daisy pup all fixed up. (If daisy would stop eating full logs out of our backyard, we wouldn't find ourselves in these predicaments)

We sat in the car in amazement of just how abundantly the Lord had provided!

And then...
last night my parents came over to watch Will while we went out to Ruth's Christ for a date night using a gift card my dad had given us. When we arrived, we were both in shock at how expensive everything was! We quickly realized that even by sharing a salad, ordering the two cheapest steaks on the menu and sharing a side of potatoes it was still going to be at least $120 for dinner!!! While we were excited to be there, I was having a hard time enjoying myself knowing how much it was going to cost.

 And then... the Lord intervened...

When our steaks arrived mine was still completely rare. I kindly asked the waiter if they could cook it a little longer. To condense the story, they took my steak off the bill for our trouble and even brought out an additional side. (excellent customer service by the way!) When the bill came, the total was $61...the exact amount of our gift card. I was almost moved to tears by how intimately the Lord had provided. 

The more I walk with Jesus, the more vividly I see how His hand is on ALL things!

Photo Shoot @ Cee Cee's

Soo my mom bought Will this very sweet little smocked outfit, that let's be honest, looks a little girly. But she bought it with the intention of having his pictures taken at Olan Mills or JC Penny"s or something like that. Well.... we never made it further than her front yard!

Here are just a few that I took before we got him in his outfit from Cee Cee ...

At this point, Will had yet to spend much time outside in the grass so he seemed more interested in taking it all in than smiling for the camera!

I must say, these last few happen to be my favorites!

This is where we did a costume change and put our fancy pants outfit on. Unfortunately, most of them didn't turn out....

What a fun day we had!

My grace is sufficient for you!

... these past few days the Lord has really laid on my heart, the importance of being "for" one another. Being a Mom is one of the hardest things I've ever done and yet for the first time in my life I have seen so much division. It's as if we enter this stage of life suddenly experts on all things motherhood and feel it is in everyone else best interest to critique how other Mom's are living life. Decisions such as, breastfeeding or formula, putting the child on a schedule or feeding on demand, letting them cry it out or not.... and it only gets worse... should you send them to public school, Christian school, home-school or preschool!!! And the list goes on and on.

I will be the first one to confess that before we had Will I had thoughts on everything! And I was confident that I would adjust to motherhood without a drop of sweat on my brow. How WRONG I was. God had other plans for me. He brought me through one of the toughest seasons of my life (maybe THE toughest.) I had severe postpartum anxiety surrounding the issues of breastfeeding and sleep. Three weeks in, I went one straight week with 45 minutes a day of sleep and thought I was going to lose my mind... that was when everything changed for me...

From that point on the Lord gave me "eye's to see."  I could never have fully learned what the Lord had for me to learn apart from walking through that valley. Zak and I have said so many times since that we will make every effort moving forward to never be critical again of new parents who are simply trying to survive this major life transition.

If you found yourself with the text book "easy" baby then you probably won't relate to any of this, but I challenge you to ask the Lord to give you "eyes to see."  I have realized that being able to talk with another Mom who "gets it" has been one of the greatest blessings and gifts during this time. Whether she walked through it or not, those who were willing to get in the tranches with me have meant so much.

I have learned to be long suffering with others and to withhold judgement on how others are choosing to raise their families and to extend abundant grace to them along the way... Parenthood is a process and until we see Jesus face to face we will still be learning.

At the end of my life I hope that those who knew me will be able to say. "Caroline walked in grace and gave grace abundantly"

What an amazing gift to give...

"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." 1 Peter 5: 10

Blogger Frustration....

SO... I continue to be completely frustrated with the blogger template as picture uploading is ALWAYS an ordeal... I am STILL try to fix the pictures from "Lunch with Nana and Grandpa" ahhh!!!! So frustrating. I even downloaded Picasa, thinking that would help things go smoother, but nope- made things worse!

Lunch with Nana and Grandpa...

So...last weekend we had a super fun and relaxing Saturday in downtown Fuquay. We met Mr. and Mrs. Shipman down at Nill's Sandwich shop and then headed over to the farely new cupcake shop. It could not have been a more perfect day! Needless to say... Will was in high demand!



I absolutely LOVE this adorable Janie and Jack outfit my sweet sister Kelley got Will before he was born, but I'm so bummed that he isn't going to get to wear it more since the weather is getting so warm and he's just now big enough to wear it!

While Will does great in his carseat at restaurants and really never fusses, he lights up when we get him out and let him have a little more freedom.

...the tug of war continues...

Yey!!! It's time for the cupcake shop!

Will: 5 Months Old...

Five months by far marks my favorite season of life with my little man! So much is changing and he is growing like a weed! He is drooling like CRAZY!!! But let's be honest, he's been drooling like crazy for the past 2 months! I am sooo ready to see a tooth come through so it will seem like we are making some progress!
Because we don't have an appointment this month, I don't have any updated stats on his weight, height, head etc. So I'll just cover the updates...

Eating: Will has been eating like a champ! He LOVES his solids. Not such a huge fan of his oatmeal, but he loves the veggies we've tried thus far with the exception of Green Beans. We decided to try green beans first because I REALLY want him to be a good eater and not the kid who only eats chicken nuggets and pizza...I can just tell you right now, that's just not going to fly in our household! So we started with the green beans first and he did not seem to appreciate his momma shoving this bland tasting green goup in his mouth. ...But it came as no surprise to me that once we moved on to squash, and sweet potatoes and sweet carrots he was in HEAVEN. He opens that mouth so wide he could fit the whole jar!

Unfortunately, squash was the second veggie we tried, and while he loved it- he had a bright red rash on his cheeks and chin each time we tried it. I called the pediatrician and she said to stop giving him the squash, move on to something else and we'll re-introduce when he's a little older. I was a little bummed to see him have an adverse reaction to anything to tell you the truth but we just took it in stride and moved on.

More on solid foods another time. As for his milk- he is continuing to take between 6-7 ounces at each feeding and eating every 4 hours.


Sleeping: We had a week from heaven just 2 weeks ago where he slept soundly EVERY night! Unfortunately, it was short lived and he is still waking up between 3 and 4am either talking up a storm or stuck on his tummy wanting to be turned back over... I must confess, this is the one area where I feel like we've tried it all. I think we have just resolved that for now, it is what it is. I am just thankful that as soon as we put his paci back in, it's lights out til 7:15am! SO I know many friends who have it much much worse, so we won't complain. Zak and I still take turns being "on duty" for the middle of the night but we are praying that VERY soon that wont be necessary and we can actually see each other past 8:30pm!

What Mr. Will has been up to... Will is becoming more and more mobile and I can tell developmentally this has been a huge past couple of weeks for him. He just started sitting up on his own and seems to love that! He continues to grab his feet and roll himself all over the place. When he gets on his tummy he pushes all the way up and kicks his legs like he's ready to take off crawling.

The most exciting update on the mommy front is that just this week he reached for me for the first time!... and it melted my heart! Thankfully, we haven't hit any separation anxiety but he certainly loves his momma and daddy and knows when we enter or leave a room. He hates to be left in the room by himself and continues to LOVE LOVE LOVE his exersaucer (Thanks CeeCee and Pop)! He has started talking to Tuck (our cat) and squeals with great delight when he gets to touch him...well more like tries pulling his ears off. He still stares at Daisy (our black lab) in amazement as she runs around the living room like a bat out of hades. I know one day very soon Daisy will be Will's best buddy!

hmm...trying to think if there is anything else... nope- I think that just about covers it! We are just staying busy in the Shipman household and trying to enjoy every moment!

Bath time....

Bath time is one of my favorite parts of our day! Daddy is home and frankly, I just love to see my naked little man splashing around and then scooped up into his precious hooded towel that his Aunt Miranda got him!

looking a little sleepy....

being that I married "Mr. Clean," Zak takes bath time VERY seriously!


does it get any cuter than this?!?!

this is probably one of my all-time FAVORITE pictures!

and ofcourse... VERY happy to be naked!

("Momma, are we done yet?")