We're at Year 7 and I'm in Heaven!

7 years ago today, I married the man of my dreams and here's 7 reasons why:
*He loves the Lord and his desire to live for Him is so evident in his daily life.

*He is great at surprising me with my favorite coffee drink and will sometimes wake up before me and go get a drink and leave it right next to me on my bedside table! He even did that today!

*He makes me laugh ALL.THE.TIME.

*He LOVES our children and you can see they love him SO much too!

*He can fix anything-seriously! One time, my hair dryer broke and he took it apart, put in a new cord and made it work!

*He is great at encouraging me-especially in my walk with God.

*He is the best BBQ-er I know!!! :)

I can think of more than 7 reasons why I love him, but I don't want to make you all bored! These last 7 years have gone so fast! I can't wait to see what God has in store for us for the next 7 and 70 years! I love you AJ! At the airport coming home from our Hawaiian honeymoon. Look how tan we were! And how much of a baby I looked like! :)

At the beach probably during our first or second year of marriage. Again, such baby faces we had! And check out my cool shades!

Our sweet family-praise God for all He's done! And I'm thinking we need an updated family photo!

Random Videos

Lily started swim lessons today and has it everyday for the next 2 weeks! I'm a bit worried that it might be a very LONG 2 weeks! She did pretty good and her class is 4 kids total-Lily being the only girl! She did get bored and "tired" when she was waiting in the pool for her turn to be taught things. And she just had to tell me how tired she was by screaming loudly and then crying for ALL to hear! She said, "I'm tired of holding on!" (to the edge of the pool) and "I want to get out!" I just didn't make eye contact with her and hoped she would eventually stop! Her instructor was great and really helped her out. She eventually got over being "tired" and was enjoying the rest of the class. And really, the class is only 30 minutes long so it's the perfect amount of pool time! Although, when she was proclaiming her dissatisfaction with her pool time I looked at the clock and saw we still had 15 minutes in the class to go! I couldn't wait for it to be over! :) Here's a little video of her in her class today.

Lily's swim lessons from Amanda Acker on Vimeo.

And this last video is an oldie but a goodie! I was reading a book to Jameson and he loved all my silly animal sounds. Please ignore how stupid I sound and focus on his cuteness!!

Jameson's squeals from Amanda Acker on Vimeo.

8 Months!

Wow. 8 months. Pinch me. It's going too fast. I want it to s l o w down!!! I have no idea how much Jameson weighs since he hasn't been to the Dr. since 6 months! I should just sit him on that scale to find out! He is as pudgy as ever and I LOVE kissing his thighs, knee caps, wrists....basically, anything that has multiple rolls all over I love to kiss! He is still not crawling or really rolling for that matter. I know lots of babies who are younger and are rolling back and forth and back and forth again. But, it's really nice to leave my baby in one spot and leave the room and come back and find him in that same spot! I know he'll start moving when he wants to. And I'm just fine with him taking his sweet time!

*Wearing 12-18 month clothes!!

*Sleeping ok but not great. Lately, he's been wanting to wake up at 5am to eat and after I feed him will go back to bed. I know he can go longer, but he won't. And I'm a sucker and won't let him cry more than 3 minutes. Yes, I'm a softie!

*LOVES to eat-but we all knew this just by looking at him! I'm still making all my baby food and it's going well. Now I'm trying to figure out what kind of snack foods to feed him. He's nursing a bit less now which gives me more freedom! I'm trying to be more creative with my baby food mixtures too. I recently made pineapple/banana, pineapple/pear, and sweet potato/corn. He seems to like it all!

*LOVES his sister. He always looks for her when they're in a room together. He follows her with his eyes and lights up when she talks to him. It's so sweet. He does get mad and cry when she randomly scratches him across his face. Ugh. Still working on her! :)

*Loves his bath and cries when I take him out.

*Talks all the time.

*Grabs at people's faces all.the.time. I think he does this mostly to people he knows though. *Stares and talks to his hands. He's done this for a while, but it's so cute to hear him cooing at his hand as he holds it in front of his face. Think of someone getting engaged and holding their hand out in front of them to admire their ring. That's what he does!!

*Recently started to notice Charlie (our lab). He will just stare at him and make an "O" shape with his mouth.

He is still a happy baby and people always tell me how easy going he is-and it's true! He just goes with the flow. Even when he's super tired and doesn't seem to get a nap in (which is every time he's in the nursery at church! Must be too much going on!) he's still a happy baby-with an occasional cry. We love our little man!

He LOVES the swing! We recently inherited my aunt and uncle's old swing set that their kids had outgrown. They were so generous in giving it to us! Lily is on that thing all day!! It's awesome! This was taken the day we got it and all of us were anxious to use it. I don't sit on the swing much though-the whole structure creaks! Just for kids I guess! Anyway, anytime Jameson is on it he just laughs and coos! So sweet. And I promise to put pictures up of the whole structure with Lily playing on it!

Outside lots these days. Need shady spots for my fair skinned, red headed baby!

Outside again-and in the shade! This time in his jumperoo. He loves it.

Love this picture. I'm so excited to use this wagon now that Jameson can sit up by himself!

First night in his high chair (this picture was taken a little bit ago though). I'm pretty sure we got this out way too late, but it's great now!

4th of July

I will start by saying that I can't wait until my kids are older when we can stay out late and enjoy fireworks! Ever since Lily was born I'm pretty sure we've been in bed and asleep by 11pm! Oh well :) We're cool like that! Anyway, the Acker's (AJ's folks) had an awesome 4th of July bbq with TONS of food and family and friends! It was so nice to eat, chat, and relax. I just wished it had been a bit warmer! Grandpa Dan did buy some fireworks to do with Lily, but that girl is so scared of loud noises she held her hands over her ears the whole time.

See?! But smiling so sweetly with her Auntie Andrea!

She later sat with Dan while AJ lit some fireworks, and again had her hands over her ears and then she wanted Dan's hands to cover her hands over her ears! After about 5 fireworks she said she was done. Maybe next year she'll be into it more! She did do some sparklers though!

Some of the boys-my dad, new brother-in-law Kevin, and AJDan lighting some of the fireworksLily playing with some sweet girls- Sophia and Eloise in the background!Brother and Sister with Lily MaeThis girl rarely shows affection to me anymore, so any chance she gives me a hug on her own I just soak it all up! She was squeezing my neck so hard too! Luckily I had my camera ready so I can capture that she really does love me! :)And sweet J baby playing with a necklace! He loved that thing. Let's just call it some beads on a string instead of a necklace. Makes it sound a bit more manly huh?