What time does...

August 2002~Tim and I met on a mission trip to Bolivia with Teen Missions International. Shortly after we parted ways (him to California, me to West Virginia/Ohio), we began "dating."

May 2003~I flew out to California to meet his family and we were able to go see the BIG sequoia redwood trees.

October 2003~Because of our long distance relationship, (and lack of cash) Tim and I went months without seeing each other. Not fun for a relationship, but we are so thankful for that time because we were able to get to know each other better (we think) by being forced to communicate to keep our relationship going.

March 2004~shortly after I donated my hair to locks of love...a traumatic experience for me since my hair was so long!! Our relationship still long distance at this point...Tim in Oregon with Columbia Helicopters and me in Ohio at Cedarville University.

September 2004~One Friday afternoon, I was sitting in my dorm room talking with Tim on the phone. He was on his way driving from Oregon to California to go to his cousins wedding. We joked how it would be fun for me to fly out for the weekend. I decided, just for curiosity, to look up how much it would cost to buy a ticket for that afternoon. We were SHOCKED to see that it was actually only around $200 for a round trip ticket to California and back. Without thinking another second, we purchased the ticket, I packed a really pathetic bag of things I would need and within less than 2 hours (almost missed the flight, thats another story) left for California. Little did I know that Tim had planned that the next time he saw me, he would propose. The picture below is at the wedding where he would eventually ask me to marry him! Obviously I said yes!! :) And I would still say yes today.

May 28, 2005~The day we said "I do"

December 2005~Our first Christmas together as husband and wife

October 2006~A romantic getaway to the beautiful Bar Harbor, Maine

October 2007~Tim got his private pilots license and took me on our first flight together

December 2008~Our first Christmas in our very first house...and I was pregnant in this picture with our first child!

May 2009~Our family of 2 is now 3!! Adding Tyler Wayne on April 29.

Happy 4th Anniversary to my wonderful loving husband, Tim!! My love for your has only grown over the years and I look forward to, Lord willing, many more years to come!

Another example of what time will do...

From left to right, Noah, age 4, Tyler, age 12 days, Benjamin, age 7 months

The Cradle is Finished!!

So, if you can remember back in March, Tim and I took a trip to California where we were able to get some lumber from a sequoia redwood that his family had cut down from his grandmother's house. Tim has spent the last 2 months making that beautiful lumber into an even more beautiful cradle! You can look here for pictures of them milling the wood and then here for some of the progress pictures. (You'll have to scroll down a bit) Well, yesterday (Tyler's due date) Tim finished it! It is so incredibly beautiful and I am so proud of my husband for his hard work on it. I am so very blessed with a crafty husband. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking...

From this...

To this...



He likes it!!! :)

For those of you who aren't familiar with the sequoia redwoods, here is an example of how big they can get

Tim's family had to cut theirs down due to the fact that it was dying. But it was well over 50 years old when they did cut it down.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Tim hopes to build more with the redwood (toy chest maybe?) for our future children...he jokes that he is going to start now so that he can be sure to have it done in time. I am just excited to see what else my husband can create!!

Our Sunday Best

The title of this entry makes me laugh a little...because my Sunday best has changed a bit. I went from all these wonderful maternity clothes that hid all the bad curves and accentuated my pregnant belly to not having any clothes that fit right!! And, its just not a cool thing to wear maternity clothes when you aren't pregnant. But alas, I will try my best to make do with what I have! Here we are, all in our Sunday best the week Tim's mom was here to visit.

Father and Son

Tyler loves laying on this rug with the sun shining in...he lays so peacefully and relaxed

Different day, but here's Tyler in his sweet shades

"Wat up"

Our first garden

Last year when we bought our house, Tim and I were excited to be able to start our first garden...however, we realized shortly after moving in that there was a lot more work to be done on the house that was a lot more important and more pressing than starting a garden! But this year, even though I was expecting a baby, we were determined to get some vegetables in the ground!! Of course, Tyler didn't help matters any by coming earlier than expected! :) But while Tim's mom was here visiting last week, we were able to officially plant some corn, LOTS of green beans, cucumbers, and I had already started some peppers in peat pots.

Tim and his mom, hard at work leveling out the ground and preparing the soil.

I don't have any of us actually planting as I was helping with this part, but here is after we finished planting and before we finished putting the fence up.

Good work, Babe!!

As you may remember, Tim is working on making Tyler a cradle using some redwood that we got from his parents. Well, he has a lot of sawdust like stuff from the wood and its a natural bug repellent, so Tim put it around the exterior of the garden in hopes that it will keep some bugs away.

This is what Tyler did while we were working on the garden...this was the first time in his stroller!

Hopefully I will be able to update again in a few weeks with actual plants growing!!

Random Tyler

Here are some random photos from the past 12 days since I last updated.

Tyler's perfect little lips I know, I'm bias

Tyler got to meet his Aunt Marisa a week ago. She didn't get to stay long so I'm not sure if she has that "favorite aunt" status yet

Tyler meeting his Uncle Tim. This poor child has so many Tim's in his life. He is going to be so confused!

My little Houdini

He normally likes to be swaddled though...at night anyway.

Tyler and his cousin Andrew...Tyler needs to get big fast so he can defend himself!!

Father and Son

These pictures are some of the my favorites of all the pictures we have taken of Tyler so far...probably because these are pictures of my two favoritist boys ever!!

Mother's Day 2009

Yes, I know, I'm a bit late in updating about Mother's Day but there is a 21 inch 9lb (ish) little thing that takes a lot of my time. :) Mother's Day was bittersweet for me this year. Sweet for the very obvious reason of little Tyler that came into our lives on April 29th...but at the same time, it was still a challenging day for me to say the least. A year ago, Mother's Day was the worst day of the year for me as I longed so badly to be a mom, but was not one yet and instead had to endure the agony of the baby we had lost. Until April 29th of this year, I don't think I fully comprehended what I had lost. Seeing little Tyler and wondering what could have been was very difficult for me. I don't think that it helped that I spent Mother's Day by myself (Tim had to work) and I have all these raging hormones floating around in my system right now. :) Don't get me wrong though, I am EXTREMELY grateful for the little gift that the Lord has blessed Tim and I with and even though I wish He could have taught me the lessons another way, I AM thankful for the experience He brought Tim and I through with losing a child and having to learn to be patient on His timing and that He is in control of ALL things. We are incredibly blessed with a beautiful and healthy baby boy. I did enjoy the morning worship service at church on Mother's Day and it was also Tyler's first time being in church so I had a lot of comments to enjoy. :) Yes, I know this isn't the dressiest of outfits but he just had to wear it on Mother's Day!

I think this picture makes him look so much older than he is...all reclined and relaxed.