Channing turned TWO months old on game 2 of the World Series.
She turned THREE months old just in time for our family photos.
And here she is, at a whopping FOUR months! She loves to ride in her Beluga Baby wraps or LilleBaby carriers. Santa brought Daddy a manly LilleBaby for Christmas and they are loving it. She puts her little hands together and prays to Jesus. She loves Mom's milk, and will only drink breastmilk from her Mimijumi bottle when I'm away. She's still rocking cloth diapers, but we've moved out of newborn all in ones and now have a hearty stash of Rumparooz, Bumgenius and Flips with AppleCheek microterry inserts. (I really promise to post a full blown blog on the cloth diaper adventure.) On the rare occasions that call for disposables, the only diapers we trust are from The Honest Company, and we've only purchased two packs of them since she arrived! She loves her amber teething necklace, visiting Dr. Chelsea at Thrive Chiropractic and jumping in her bouncer from Grandma and Grandpa. She's already a baseball travel guru, flying to Georgia with us for the annual PAO conference. (Details of this incredible conference on my bestie Kendall's blog starting here: Know Better Love). She loves to sleep with Mom and Dad at night, and watch Baby Einsteins in the morning. She has a darling collection of rolls on her arms and legs, just rolled over, and likes to coo and gurgle. We absolutely can not believe how fast she's growing, and I can't believe how often her Dad begs for another sibling for her. However, I'm shooting to get through the next baseball season with out a baby in my belly.
So the good news. The long awaited good news is two fold. My agency has retained the intervention and prevention contract a local high school, which means that I now work part time out of that high school! I spent a good portion of time during my maternity leave writing the contract between the school district and our agency, and it finally was voted on by the school board in early December. I guess all good things take time. The agreement basically says that our agency will provide a staff member trained in crisis management and power based personal violence advocacy, to provide all the necessary intervention and prevention services needed to students to foster a safer and healthier student environment. We all felt fairly confident that this contract would be approved, even though it's the first agreement in the state of Idaho (and maybe the country, according to the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence) of it's kind; we went ahead and launched Green Dot at this high school in mid December after months of planning. Green Dot is an effective proactive bystander intervention training targeted at reducing sexual and dating violence, as well as bullying. I'm so excited to see where this new journey will lead my agency.
You might have caught that part time piece. I'm leaving time in my schedule to continue growing my photography business. I'm absolutely shocked by the growth that it's experiencing but God couldn't have provided it at a better time. I wasn't expecting this at all, but He certainly was because things are aligning so well...ahem, as He planned. Do you remember this summer when I learned about a local birth center's opening and quick hurry dropped off a ton of things for them to sell in a yard sale while I was majorly preggers back in August? It's okay, I barely remember that either. Anyway, that's what happened and while I was there I got to chatting with the midwife behind this crazy cool vision, her name is Sarah. (She's really good friends with my rockin' doula, Kayla). She told me all about her plans to open a birth center, while standing on her front yard, which in retrospect was kinda crazy because I just met her (again, how does He do it all so perfectly?) I told her I really liked to take pictures and I dreamed of taking birth photos. She told me she already had a photographer she was partnered with, which made a lot of sense to me, because people don't just open birth centers with out a plan. I dropped the photography talk and told her that healthy birth and female empowerment was a movement near and dear to my heart, and for her to just reach out if there was ever anything I could do to help. Over Keurig coffee, building random pieces of furniture before the grand opening, taking head shots for the staff, and discussing birth insurance billing questions with Sarah at the birth center, I realized that I still really wanted to do that photography thing with such a knowledgable midwife, and for strong mommas birthing at the center. Before I was able to verbalize it, Sarah brought it back up and said she wanted me to have that option too! Yippy! So I saved some of the income from my family sessions and with just a little help from relatives at Christmas I was finally able to purchase a lens just for birth and newborn photography, props for newborn sessions, a backdrop stand, and the super spendy posing pillows for newborn shoots. Sarah let's me use the birth center as a studio when needed, which is an incredible blessing. And you may have noticed the new logo! I'm rebranding for the New Year! The new website should be launching by the end of the week with a new look, and new packages.
Kyle's been working hard this off season in the weight room and in the cage. If you've been following baseball stuff, you may have seen he was not selected in the Rule 5 draft. We were anxiously awaiting to see if another team in baseball was ready to add us to their 40 man roster, but after battling an injury most of this last season, his agent really prepared us for the fact it was unlikely. And his agent was right. (He usually is, hehe.) It didn't happen, but we love our Met's family, and there's room for us here for now. That's a blessing in it's own. We're just waiting for Spring Training details to be sent our way and preparing to give this season all we have. So there you have it! The last few months have been crazy busy, but we're embracing each part of this journey with our hearts open and our trust in Him and His plans for us.
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