Baby Girl Reveal

    So by now, everyone knows that Baby Lanphier #2 is a GIRL! We had a gender reveal party Monday night with both sides of our immediate families. We had had our ultrasound earlier in the day, but asked the technician not to tell us the gender, but write it in a note card and we would bring it to our friend who was going to fill cupcakes with either pink or blue icing depending on the results! It was SO much fun! I seriously was nervous right before biting into the cupcake. 

Thanks to our amazing cupcake maker Lexie Freshman for such GORGEOUS cupcakes!!

Pre-reveal...

 We also made our families guess the baby's sex:

Family guessing GIRL

Family guessing BOY

   It was one of the highlights of my year so far having a gender reveal party. There is just something so special about sharing in the excitement of a new life with those you love the most- plus, I love any excuse to have a celebration!

About to take the bite!

Sheer joy! Pink frosting in the middle!

Disbelief! I was convinced it was a boy.

SOOOOOO excited

Hug from my dad :)

Results that the ultrasound tech wrote in the card.

    It was extra-meaningful to find out our baby is a girl because Paul and I have both had dreams about our daughter even before Theo was born. I actually had a dream about my future daughter when I was in high school and when we described to each other what we had seen in our dreams it was remarkably similar. We know that she has an amazing destiny and purpose and couldn't be more thrilled to meet her in a few short months...

Sweet baby girl.

Baby #2: 17/18 weeks

   So I seemed to have lost my knack for blogging... This is my first post in 3 MONTHS! I can't say that I'm completely on board, but I keep feeling like this baby #2 will be sad if I have weekly updates with Theo and none for him/her. So here we go... but disclaimer to baby #2: I do not commit to weekly- I'll do my best.
  What has life looked like the lately? Busy! Paul, Theo, and I just got back from a month in California (Paul was doing wellness clinics for Google so T and I tagged along). It was a great time in many ways. We loved seeing friends from ministry school last year at Bethel, and traveled to many cities in the Bay area. However, a major draw-back was my "good sleeper" baby because a co-sleeper and there was NOTHING we could do about it. I wasn't about to subject the entire hotel to him crying it out. So coming home has made for a rude awakening (for parents and Theo- sleep training sucks). Oh, and did I mention we've hit the tempter tantrum phase?! Pray for me. Seriously.
   Oh, back to the purpose of this post: pregnancy. Ahhh pregnancy. What is there to say? If you followed my first time around you know I'm not the model of a happy pregnant person (in all fairness, I only know a few of those girls). Luckily, for Paul's sake, #2 is going more smoothly in many ways. For example: I'm not bedridden for months at a time, no trips to the ER have been made for dehydration, I have NOT been woken up in the middle of the night because of my pelvis feeling like it was splitting apart, and most importantly I can eat Chinese food this time!
   Now to get real: I didn't ever feel hyper emotional with my pregnancy with Theo (maybe I was too sick to notice. But this time?? SOS... call the prayer chain... get me shock therapy. I'm sorry if this offends you, but I feel plain violent at times (kinda kidding, kinda not). On one occasion, Paul and I were having a disagreement and I was feeling so upset I had to stop the conversation with "I'm sorry, but all I want to do is punch you in the face right now." For the record, this is not normal for my temperament. I hate UFC, hockey, and seeing people in pain in general. I must just be having a "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" phase. And for the record no husbands have been harmed in the making of this baby... Mostly, I think this side comes from months of poor sleep with my Bubzie.
   So here is a pic from last week at 17 (I'm 18 weeks now, but am too lazy to snap a pic)

    Stay tuned next week: I will be 19 weeks and find out baby's sex. We are having a gender reveal party with our families and will only know the result after biting into a cupcake... So Pink or Blue??!! you can leave your guess. I'm not even guessing because it changes every week. With Theo we were positive it was a boy and feel uncertain with baby #2. We will be thrilled either way! Although I have to say I think I only have (maybe) one more pregnancy in me...
 

2012 Ending

 

I have been wanting to blog for a while, but this last month has been one of the busiest months of my life! We had company for Thanksgiving (our friends Courtney and Patrick that we met while going to school out at Bethel), a month of nightly services up at the Omaha HUB (with Paul helping out so up there most nights), and then went to West Virginia for Christmas. This made for a crazy holiday season, but a wonderful time to make memories. Speaking of which, Theo crawled for the first time on Christmas day! He is so stinking cute I can barely stand it. We were actually all convinced he had skipped the crawling stage and was going straight to walking, but he proved us wrong! Obviously, I immediately posted a video of him crawling to my YouTube channel (which is pretty much a Theo channel).

So today is the last day of 2012. What a year it has been! Finishing ministry school, having our first baby, and moving back to Omaha to be around family. We have become more involved in doing ministry this year (really since October) and have grown more in 2012 then any year yet! I think that this year was about setting our foundation for how we related to our faith, family, and mindsets. I feel like this was a “bonus year,” where we had a lot of unusual circumstances that allowed us to have more time than we normally would as a family, but it was the Lord’s kindness as we formed a lot of habits that will be a part of our family culture.

As we look to 2013, we see a time of setting down roots, investing in career, and stability. Our friends Beau and Grace are going to Europe this summer and we would love to travel with them (especially since we only have 1 kid and could leave him safely in the States with grandparents!) I personally am resolving to cook more in 2013 than I did this year. I am also looking forward to going on a ‘vision retreat’ with Paul in a few weeks (our Christmas gift to each other this year). 2013 looks like it may be a pretty amazing year!

Memory document

   I am one of the most sentimental/nostalgic people I know... I can say this because last month, I teared up at a Chick-fil-A in Kansas City witnessing an unknown family throwing their child a 1st birthday party. Why? Because I was forced to think about my own baby turning 1 in February. I blog, Instagram, and make Shutterfly memory books like it's my job, just so I can document all the 'firsts,' milestones, and memories. I was on the verge of starting Theo his own notebook where Paul and I write notes to him throughout his childhood, but my mother-in-law gave me an awesome idea I want to share here. 
   I have begun writing out a few sentences a few times a month in a Word document. It is easier for me to commit to than the idea of writing several pages in a journal. I may compile entries monthly after he passes the 1 year mark, but for now I'm trying to log a few notes every month :) Here is what Theo's Memory Document looks like so far:
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7.5 months old

-10/10/2012- You love to grab everything! You babble and “talk” to us. You are not a fan of self-entertaining… Today I set the timer to give you five minutes of playtime without me and you made it only 3.5 minutes before having a total melt-down :)  – Mommy

-10/11/2012- Theo, you are not a morning-baby ;) you cry very hard until your bottle is in your mouth… you also fuss if anyone tries to talk to you while you are drinking your first bottle of the day- you prefer quiet! Once you have had your milk, you are like a new baby-happy and snugly! – Mommy

10/12/2012- I can feel your first tooth coming in on the bottom! Can’t wait to see it! –Mommy

10/17/2012- I buckled you in the grocery cart for the first time while shopping at Target today- you loved it! You blew bubbles with you mouth and babbled a lot… I couldn’t stop kissing your chubby cheeks- you are starting to look like a big boy :) :( -M

8.5 months old

11/06/12- You had your 9 month check up yesterday (half a month early). Dr. Douglas says you are incredibly smart and advanced physically. He thinks you aren’t crawling or walking because you figured out if you cry we will take you wherever you want to go J. I have let you fuss the last few days while you try to ‘entertain yourself’ – it makes me so sad to hear you cry! Also, you are 26% for weight and 49% for length.. you weigh almost 19 lbs. Your two teeth are poking through the bottom and Dr says you have two coming in on top… -M

   If my kids are have as nostalgic as I am, they will realllllly appreciate their memory documents someday... 

Fall 2012

   So, I love fall. As I become with many things, I am quite obsessed and look forward to this season EVERY YEAR! Last year, I was robbed of my autumn experience because #1-we lived in Redding, CA (northern Cali), which does not have a fall season because of the heat and #2- I was sick with my pregnancy. This #2 was a MAJOR drag because I had been self-talking my sick, preggo, self all summer that pumpkin spice lattes would soon be my reward. I was planning on drinking as many as I wanted (since I was pregnant (with less shots of esspresso of course)). BUT I never got well enough to enjoy them... which really bummed me out. 
  All this to say, fall in Nebraska has been pure bliss! We went to the pumpkin patch twice within a 72 hour period (once with my fam and once with Paul's). Even though Theo is too young to enjoy the PP I made sure and milked it enough for the both of us!

Uncle Fabio sporting Theo

"Gosh guys! I better put this in my mouth just like I do EVERYTHING these days.."- T

4 Generations!

Hayrack ride!

Theo's favorite thing at the pumpkin patch...

Uncle Tyler is soooo much fun!

Busy day..

Family of 3!!!

Again with the straw....

Pumpkin path round 2 with cousins on Lanphier side!

corn pit love

   All I have to says is that if fall is this much fun, Christmas will be plain ridiculous....

A litte perspective

  Do you ever just have an off day? I am happy to report that I have less "funk" days the older I get and the more I mature- but yesterday was one of those days. My baby was fussy and teething, my husband was home for only a day before leaving for a work trip, and I felt tired. Urg, can anyone say #funkcity??? Crap, I could feel myself getting sad mid-day, bracing for my husband leaving and missing him even though he was with me. Then I was irritated with myself for being sad on the one day he was in town... dysfunctional cycle... actually, let's hashtag that sucker #dysfunctionalcycle...
  I cried in the car after we had to leave Starbucks early because Theo was fussing... I cried, ok,- you caught me, I sobbed. I told him we should maybe only have two kids so that I could have enough quality time in the future- DARN having "quality time" as my #1 love language- there are just no short cuts to filling my love tank!!! If I wasn't sure I couldn't be pregnant I probably would have thought I was! Nope, just living life imperfectly.....
  Paul (who is a pro by now at handling emotions) just spoke life over me- told me that this day doesn't define me, that I am a powerful person who can handle life, etc. That popped me out of my funk about being apart the coming week and I was able to enjoy the rest of the night with him.
  So today, guess what happens?!! I meet a wonderful, sweet woman from Kenya at a birthday party. She and I start talking and lo and behold, she has been living away from her husband for SEVEN year... yes, SEVEN years. She is here going to nursing school, working, and sending home money to Kenya. By herself. She has 2 kids- also still in Africa. She came to Omaha not knowing anyone or anything about American culture... She looked at me with tears in her eyes saying that she missed her husband, but she was strong and had deepened her relationship with the Lord. "He's all I've had. I thought I knew God before this experience, but no, now I know God. This time has brought me so close to Him." I stood there literally having an encounter with gratitude just talking to her. I asked her if I could hug her and said that I was pretty sure God had sent her to tell me her story at the perfect time. 
   Nothing like a little perspective. So tonight I came home, I tucked my baby into bed. I called my husband and told him how thankful I am for our life together. Now I am laying in bed, praying for my new friend and grateful for the opportunity to live my life with more joy.

iphone momma

  I love having an iPhone- really, it's a mom's best friend... but let's review all the social media modes I use: 1. Facebook (duh) 2. Twitter 3. Instagram (emilylanphier) 5. Pinterest 6. this BLOG and as of today- 7. YOUTUBE! My girl Meghan, made me an account so I can upload all of Theo's baby milestones directly to the web (user name: emilylanphier). WOW! Someone is a sucker for memories. I just simply cannot help myself... Having "Input" in your top 5 strengths is a blessing and a curse... I just keep collecting modes of memory keeping. That's what this blog truly is for me- a memoir.  
   I have renewed vision for blogging because I'm so grateful for the pregnancy memories I have from blogging. I am currently making a pregnancy journal from Shutterfly based off my Theo baby blog entries ;)
  Here is a quick caption from my life now: I really adore being "retired" as I tell everyone. I mean, who doesn't love having their full-time job being to love another human being? I am so smitten with Theo that I am thinking about writing a children's book- this is not a joke. I literally feel like being a mom has given me a download of divine creativity and tapped into parts of my heart that I didn't even know existed!
  Down side to being retired?: Hmmm... I'll get back to you... I do keep thinking that having only one baby is easiest because it's one on one... two babies may get hectic, but that brings me to another revelation: refuse to let someone else's experience dictate your expectations for your life. Paul and I decided early on that we "flush" (get rid of) bad advice and negative warnings like "Oh, just wait until they are two years old," or "just wait until the second kid comes..." It's not that we live in denial, but we won't buy into a poor mindset. Well-meaning people would warn me about how big a change motherhood is (when I was pregnant with Theo) and guess what?  We flushed the words, spoke out what we believed was God's plan for my time of transition and result?: I have had the most grace-covered start to motherhood I could have ever hoped for! My breakthrough is yours so take it! :)
  One small downside to retired life has been Theo getting sick for the first time and having a week and a half of no sleep. Don't judge me because not only am I not sleeping, but I think the stinker gave me a cold! It's hard to see your baby sick, but has made me feel like I am "real" mom. I've weathered the storm of sick babyness! One plus from this fiasco has been seeing my husband bringing his "A" game! Dr.'s appts by himself?- no biggie! Taking the night shift?- he's got it covered. Paul Lanphier you are God's gift to my retired self...
  Here are a few snapshots of my iphone usage: Sorry these are all of Theo- wait, no I'm not!

finally crashed after a very rough sleepless night :( (1st time being sick)

Baby space captain

no filter- at his cousin Josiah's 1st birthday party

Clean baby

melt. my. heart.

dreaded tummy time