Friday, April 29, 2011

Happy Four Months!

Dear Sweet Sadie,

It's so hard to believe you're already 4 months old. At your doctor's appointment today you weighed 13 lbs 11 oz and were 26 inches long! You are definitely becoming quite the curious little person. You are so observant of the colors in books, the looks on people's faces, and every thing else in this big new world. Your friend Mr. Darrell said he thinks you're smiley about 70% of the time and I would have to say I agree with that statement. You certainly know how to get our attention with those lungs of yours but you're still such a sweet baby.

You learned how to roll over this month (from stomach to back) although you've only duplicated that move a few times since. Your poor bald spot continues to get larger (we gotta work on those back muscles) and the rest of your hair still refuses to lay down! Some people say you're starting to look a lot like your Mom but I still think you've got a good bit of your Dad in there too.

Now that it's warmer outside we've been going for more walks outside and you really like your stroller. You're learning to "talk" more and you've even been known to let out a few laughs. Sitting in your baby La-z-boy chair is still one of your favorite activities. The way you pull on your toys from that chair makes me think you might be a future gymnast!

Our love for you continues to grow more and more each day. You are such a blessing. We love you lots!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Day Thirteen

50) To you this might look like a mess of clothes but to me it's a whole new wardrobe. I love changing my closet out each season with "new" clothes from the attic. It makes me feel like I just went on a shopping spree!

51) Every holiday I fall victim to the powers of seasonal candy. For some reason a Reester Bunny (or egg) tastes a whole lot better than a regular Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. Just to be clear this basket is a combination of all the Uebel family's Easter candy :).
52) A new washing machine that works. I will never take my washing machine for granted EVER again.
53) Cute little babies in their Easter dress and a new sun hat (thanks Nana)!

54) New haircuts and a sweet little baby.
55) A baptismal service on Easter Sunday. A great way to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus!

56) Sweet little Charlotte (this photo is another cheat by the way, it was taken on 1/9/11 but I forgot to take a picture of her this weekend). We went to an Easter Pageant on Saturday night at a local church and Charlotte played the part of Baby Jesus. She stole the show for sure. At one point she let out a few cries and had the audience in total "ooos and awwws." Precious. Oh yea, the pageant was pretty incredible too!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Short Break

The past few days have been a whirlwind and it seems that wind swept my camera away with it. I have a feeling this means my 100 joys challenge will go on past the month of April. I hope to take lots of pictures this weekend though. Hope you have a great Easter!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Day Twelve

46) TV on DVD. Addicting. We watched all of season one right after Sadie was born and then my sweet husband bought season two for us to watch.

47) We're making several of the rooms at our church into kid friendly spaces. We had a work day today and I got to paint this lovely piece of art. Turns out I'm not so good at painting but it was good for the soul :).

48) I found out one year ago today that I was pregnant. It's crazy how times flies and even crazier how much my life has changed since last year.

49) Here I am demonstrating that I can now wear another pair of pre-pregnancy jeans. Praise the Lord! P.S. Please ignore the funk that is my hair in this picture. It was taken at 9pm after a very LONG day.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Day Eleven

40) The book I'm reading right now. It's written by a former Wycliffe missionary we met at a conference last year. I hadn't picked it up since last summer but it's been speaking volumes to me lately.

41) Meeting with these gals every Sunday night is such a blessing. They all have a wonderful way of pointing me to Jesus.

42) The kids at our church helped out the band this past Sunday morning. Such a blessing to see these little gals (the boys had a bit of stage fright) praising God.

43) Falling asleep on the sofa with my sweet little baby. Nic & I decided to trade in our computers for family time on Saturdays during the Lenten season. Sweet times like this are a result.

44) Saturday morning it rained hard. So hard that the 3.2 mile Run for Remembrance was canceled. When I looked out the door at BCM that morning I happened to notice a bunch of people running the race on their own. Pretty cool to see the Hokie community come together.

45) Speaking of BCM we had an in-house retreat with Longwood University & Hampden Sydney College. It was a great weekend of seeing people come together despite a few rearranged plans.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Day Ten

Okay so I failed. To be honest I either forgot about taking pictures or just let myself throw a pity party the past couple of days. It seems I have a lot of catching up to do between now and April 30!
35) It was nice again yesterday so the whole family enjoyed some time outside. Reading outside is one of my favorite pasttimes.

36) Smiley baby. Enough said.


37) Nic is demonstrating the Sadie Hug Hold. It's absolutely one of my favorite things when I pick her up and she grabs on to my shoulder. I realize she probably doesn't know what she's doing but I like to think she's hugging me :).

38) Tulips and flowers galore have started to bloom around our house. Nic & I don't exactly have green thumbs so we were so excited to see that the people who owned our house before did!

39) Normally I'm not such a fan of birds (note why I chose Finding Nemo seagulls instead of real ones here). But there's a bird chirping outside right now that reminds me of a seagull and that makes me think of consistently warmer days ahead and days at the beach!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Day Nine

31) Watched this episode of The Office with Nic last night. Precious. I almost cried and I can't say that about too many things Michael Scott does.

32) I think one of my favorite things about my computer is the camera. It helps me capture those chubby little cheeks (Sadie's not mine).

33) I love getting letters from our Compassion kiddo. It makes me squeal with delight every time I see one in the mailbox.

34) Again I'm a fan of The Brown Eyed Baker. This time I made no bake cookies except in my neck of the woods we call them preacher cookies. Delicious and easy to make.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Day Eight

Oops, I almost forgot to blog today. I have to admit that I wasn't so good with my camera this weekend. It's been a hard few days around here and I didn't always want to pull out my camera or sometimes I just plan forgot. But without further adieu here are some of my joys:

25) I painted my nails last week for the first time probably since I found out I was pregnant. It's not that I had some phobia that the toxins would soak into my skin and hurt my baby, I was just too tired to care. As it turns out I missed it, I kinda like the burst of color. Heavens knows the rest of my wardrobe doesn't have much color going on.

26) Some sweet sweet BCM students got together and collected money to send us out on a date. They're even providing the babysitting. This was such an unexpected surprise and blessing. I am so grateful for a fun date night out with my hubby but I'm even more grateful that they thought of us!

27) We busted out the grill this evening to celebrate the warmer weather. And we finally got to enjoy that bottle of Sparkling Grape Juice that's been sitting in our refrigerator since Valentine's Day. It's always a good day when the wedding day flutes come out!

28) I love it that my daughter gets to grow up and be loved by tons of college students. She's only 3 months old and I can already see why they say "It takes a village to raise a child."


29) Ok so this is sort of a cheat-this picture is from a few years ago (obviously Nic is a nerd but not that much of one). Anyways our friend Seth (and his wife Sarah) who we met in Philadelphia, randomly found themselves in Blacksburg as they made their half cross country drive to Texas yesterday afternoon. We got to hang out with them for just a little bit and it was SO encouraging to seem them!


30) Speaking of Texas. Breakaway Ministries is a student ministry at Texas A&M. We were first introduced to the director of this ministry, Ben Stuart, at Passion 09. I recently rediscovered their podcast and have been so encouraged by it lately.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Day Seven

20) I've only made these cookies twice but I seriously think they may be some of the best cookies I've EVER made. My friend Nicki originally linked to the recipe for these peanut butter, oat, chocolate chip wonders and as it turns out The Brown Eyed Baker is no joke when it comes to any kind of desserts.

21) To you this might just look like a sleeping baby but to me, this is a SLEEPING baby. I think poor Sadie is going through a bit of a growth spurt so she was a bit fussier yesterday than normal. Around 9 o'clock last night she passed out in her chair and I realized that was one of the first times all day my house had been quiet :).

22) The whole family went out to Pandapas Pond yesterday for an adventure in the sun. Nic & Sadie "read" while Mabel & I went for a run. I think we all may have learned a bit of a lesson when it comes to applying sunscreen, even when it's only April.

23) On our way back from Pandapas yesterday, Mabel was panting like a mad woman. I guess that's what running & chasing geese at the same time will get you.


24) Last night I started watching DC Cupcakes on Comcast OnDemand. I've heard about it before and even had one of their cupcakes (a friend brought it back for me) but I held out till now. Turns out it's actually pretty cute. The sisters who own the place are pretty ridiculous but they're really good at what they do. Somehow I always end up being a sucker for those bakery shows. First Ace of Cakes, Cake Boss, and now this!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Day Six

As I've mentioned before, it's been so nice around Blacksburg the past couple of days and we've taken full advantage of it! Hence why a lot of my joys today are from the great outdoors.

16) Nic snapped this picture yesterday as he was bringing me my camera. I love walking around campus on a nice day. People are in such a pleasant mood and you get lots of fun looks pushing around a baby stroller :).

17) Speaking of campus. I absolutely love Virginia Tech (and no it's not just because I graduated from here). Once you've seen it, there is no denying it's beauty. I think a lot of times I take for granted the beautiful place we live in.

18) Sweet conversations. Not only do I love the campus we work on but I love the students we work with too! It's so rewarding to sit on a bench and talk about life and how God is working through it all with this lovely woman!

19) A little beauty indoors. My sweet husband brought flowers home for me last week (that's why the one in front is a bit droopy) and it totally brightened my day. They're sitting in front of me as I work this afternoon along with my back door open. Quite the inspiration I must say!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Day Five

Today's joys are a little bit different.


14) I'm a little late to the Youtube scene so you may have already seen this before. I haven't however and I think it's pretty stinking hilarious. As it turns out it won the People's Choice Award for Best Viral video this year!


15) The new Passion album is amazing. I love to play it & sing along while I'm doing chores around the house. I like to think I'm making a future David Crowder Band and Christy Nockels fan out of Sadie. Seriously though, every time I listen to this album I hear something that speaks to me.


16) While I was standing in line at Old Navy the other day, I happened to see this little beauty hanging on the clearance rack (along with 20 others of the exact same thing). I couldn't resist buying it after I saw the price tag was a whopping $2.97. Poor Bengals. At least I got a good deal out of their misery :).

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Day Three

9) This girl. Melissa made me bust at the seams with laughter Sunday night. I was seriously in tears and I couldn't tell you the last time I laughed that hard.

10) We had these guys over for dinner last night and it was so much fun to hang out with them. We had actually planned on doing this last year but it ended up never happening, so better late than never right? Several of these guys are graduating in May and will be greatly missed by the Uebel fam.

11) My HERO! This lady seriously saved the day yesterday. As I mentioned in an earlier post, our washing machine is broken and we've been using other people's machines to get our laundry done. Well yesterday Sadie so graciously decided to poop all over me (yes, you read that right) that I needed a washing machine STAT. Jeanette not only let us use her machine but met me at the door with my folded laundry in hand!

12) Staff meeting in the sun. I love our weekly staff meetings but I love them even more when they're outside in 70 degree weather. I also love it when a certain little someone sleeps in her carseat for the whole two hours (note the car seat in the far right corner)!


13) Another first. Sadie wore her first dress ever yesterday! I was so excited for the warmer weather that I decided a dress didn't require a special occasion- everyday life is special enough!


I'm noticing that a lot of my joys revolve around people and I am more than ok with that. God, thank you for the many wonderful people you have placed in my life. May I not take them for granted!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Day Two

3) This might seem like a strange picture to you but to me it's sweet bliss. Notice that the only thing in the top of the shopping cart is my pocketbook (no car seat...hint, hint). Call me weird but I actually enjoy grocery shopping and I love going by myself even more. Don't get me wrong I love my little girl to pieces but I was so thankful to go Krogering alone!

4) Running! I've really enjoyed getting back into the running groove. I even bought new shoes a couple of months ago to inspire me to run more. I'm signed up for my first post-pregnancy race on May 7 and I have only one goal: run the entire thing!

5) Running with this girl. For some reason it always seems easier to run when someone is with you (although I was hurting yesterday, bad).


6) International Street Fair. Every year the international student organizations on campus get together for a festival celebrating all the diversity here at VT. There is tons of food, dancing, and people! We sampled some baklava and thai tea.

7) These people. I love all the people in this picture dearly. My parents came up to visit Saturday afternoon and it was so much fun to have them here. I'm certainly blessed by my family!

8) In case you didn't know, India won the World Cup in cricket this Saturday and the Indian Student Association got together at BCM to watch it. Sadly we got to BCM when the game was already over but still it was so much fun to hear tons of people yelling and running around with the Indian flag in celebration. The energy in the room was contagious. I have no idea what cricket is about but I was excited for them!