Steve and Jenny Valentine

Well month four and five have come and passed in our little daughter's life and we couldn't be more thrilled with each new day we get to spend with her. Some of the amazing new abilities she has learned are: babbling non stop squeeling noises - very high pitched noises I might add perfecting many other types of noises with her mouth - it seems when she learns a new noise, she repeats it over and over until it's perfect! sitting up without assistance - still wobbly at times, but mostly because something gets her so excited and she can't seem to sit still! rolling like a champion - she perfected the tummy to back first and it seemed like several weeks later she mastered back to tummy rolls...ever since then she has been a rolling machine and uses this as her primary way of "getting around".  This also makes for some very interesting sleeping positions we find her in when she's in her crib :) army crawl to reach for objects - toys, mom, dad, paci, et...

Karis 5 months Valentine Family Since we have been married, Steve and I enjoy writing a Valentine letter (instead of a Christmas letter). We have always picked a word that we feel has been relevant for our past year as our guide of what to write about.  GRACE is our word choice this Valentine's day.  Enjoy! G-Grace. This could easily be described as the one word that we base our lives around. Grace is a Greek word which if transliterated into English, would be Karis. God has shown us much grace by sending his son to be sin on our behalf and save us from our sin. We also see God’s grace in the day to day life experiences. One of those ways was by gracing us with our daughter in August, whom we named Karis because we wanted to give her a name that would reflect what God was doing in our lives. Jenny has picked a favorite hymn of ours to sing to Karis on a nightly basis as part of a bed time routine. It would be our hope that Karis will know the meaning of her ...

Having a baby drastically changes your life.  This is a statement that several people told me before the birth of our daughter.  When people would give me advice about parenting and life after children, I would try to glean from the wisdom that was given.  Obviously, some people give you more than you want to hear most of the time, but I tried to respond with grace in most cases and thank them for what they had to say.  One of those ways that having a child 'drastically' changes things is your sleeping habits (or lack thereof)!  I can't say I haven't had a full nights sleep because Karis is sleeping through the night now (on most nights) but it never seems like enough.  It's like my body is trying to recoup from the sleep I wasn't getting after Karis was first born - even tough I know that's not how the body operates, I like to think that's what's going on!  So I try to catch a nap when I can on the weekends.  Steve and I have diligently trie...

It seems like this season of our lives is passing by so fast! There have been many changes, joys, frustrations, victories and things to praise God for...one of those is our wonderful daughter and the joy she brings to our lives. She past the three month mark a few weeks back and we are in awe as each new day comes and goes with the new things she learns. I constantly find myself fascinated with her more and more and cannot believe this little miracle has been given to us, entrusted to our care, from our heavenly father. She has quite the personality and I have a slight feeling she might be kind of a people person...gee wonder where she might get that from! She smiles all the time...seriously...this child of ours barely cries. Don't get me wrong, she does fuss and cry, but those moments are few and far between. We feel very priveledged to spend life with her. Besides smiling and cooing at people, during months 2 and 3 she started "singing" along with mommy and daddy wh...

It seems crazy that Karis is already one month old (well almost 6 weeks as I write this blog).  Here is a day in the life of our one month old:  Karis is very content in the morning, typically with lots of smiles! Not so happy with a dirty diaper though! Getting ready for bath time She doesn't like baths too much, but she's starting to enjoy them Part of bath time she hates...getting out of the warm water, but as long as we wrap her up fast she is happy Play time with mom Serious face I'm tired...stop with the pictures mom! Nap time Waking up from her nap Our favorite part of her waking up, big stretches! Reflecting back over the month... Adore her - Karis at 1 week old Other than eat, sleep and dirty diapers...here are some other neat things about her first month: She began smiling by the first week at home and we were able to catch it briefly on camera.  She smiles a lot,...