On the flip side, Paislee, my sister had her 30th at Agave Azul Mexican..it was sooo good! She is just so beautiful on the inside and out and I’m so happy to call her my sister.  Here are some photos from the night.   Happy Birthday Paislee Dawn I celebrate you! I love you!

Happy Friday everyone!

]]> http://www.lindseyandjustin.com/2010/04/30/three-fingered-friday/feed/ 2 http://www.lindseyandjustin.com/2010/04/29/1-daddy/ http://www.lindseyandjustin.com/2010/04/29/1-daddy/#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:33:19 +0000 Lindsey http://www.lindseyandjustin.com/?p=860 I know most Mommy’s have #1 Daddy’s but I just want to explain why Justin is such an amazing Dad!

The first thing that even came out of the man’s mouth when Sawyer was born was “he is so beautiful”, “he is JUST so beautiful” and said it about 4 or 5 times with tears in his eyes.  He stared for hours at Sawyer in the first few days of his life.

He is so CRAZY in love with his boy.

I’m so fortunate to have a supportive, loving, strong man by my side to take care of me and this little “floobs” (baby boy – Kirklandish language).  He is so patient with him, when Sawyer gets upset he knows how to calm him.   When they play, oh when they play..its just so beautiful.  It takes my breath away to watch them interact.  For years and years I always dreamed about how he would communicate with our babies and he totally exceeded my expectations.  You can see the adoration in his eyes when he looks at him. I’m so lucky to have him as my husband and the Daddy to Sawyer, it makes me so excited to have more babies!  I cannot imagine life without my man in it!  Thank you Justin Bryant Kirkland for being the best!

Things Sawyer can do now:

Laugh! This was joy to our ears, the first time he did the ol’ giggle Justin and I looked at eachother in amazement! ha. We just couldn’t believe it! I mean it’s just a laugh..not a big deal but when its your kid its A-mazing!

Sawyer’s First giggle

Sawyer’s Second giggle

Sleep! He is still sleeping through the night.  Praise the Lord! But I like to still sneak him in our room to take morning naps

Reach! He grabs for anything and everything!

Talk! He tries so hard to communicate but all that comes out are the awesome “coos” and “muuuhs”.

I’m telling you the boy sings..it’s the truth! I’m driving down the road listening to a song and I hear coming from the backseat..”mmmm mmm mmm” or “uhh uhhhhhhh”.  The only reason why I think he sings is because he holds these noises longer than normal, like he’s trying to hold a note. haha. When I hear him I ask him, “are you singing buddy?” and he completely stops and then starts up again a few minutes later but only if I’m quiet.  It’s SUPER funny.

Little Adventures:

We went to Fort Lauderdale to visit our very good friends Britni & Travis Webster.  The weekend consisted of the Las Olas Farmers Market in the rain, bike riding in the rain, feeding massive Tarpon the size of massive Tarpon, devouring the most amazing clam chowder ever, good food by Britni, wine, good conversation and laughter with one of my best.  We had such a good time! We can’t wait until they move back in September! yahooo!!

Sawyer stayed with MiMi for the first time while Justin and I went on our first date alone.  He did such a great job with her and her with him! Justin and I went to the Dashboard confessional concert to enjoy the wonderful songs that brought us together 8 years ago! We had such a great time together singing, laughing and reminiscing! I love my man!

He loves to go to parks and lay on a blanket in the grass.  He LOVES being outside.

He met the Easter Bunny with his cousins!

Sawyer is kind of social butterfly, he has gone to 6 baby showers with me.  He is such a good baby! Congrats To Lauren, she is welcoming her little boy in May!

We took a trip to see my dear friend Kate and her cutie patootie son, Hendrix in Satellite beach.  We went to a park where Kate and Melissa’s kids swang in the swings while Sawyer was wishing he could do it too! One day not too far away he will have a competition on who will swing higher and I will be crapping my pants. ha..love him being a baby, he will be older for so much longer!  Trying to take it all in.

My friends Mary Hannah and Rachel both had their sweet baby girls, Adelaide & Georgia.  They are both so beautiful! Sawyer will meet both of them this week..the hospital where they were born didn’t allow outside babies to be on the maternity floor so Sawyer has to wait to meet his friends a few more days.

Sawyer attended his first 80s birthday party for our good friend, Becca Hill. We all had such a good time, I dressed as a glam rock girl, Justin was Michael Jay Fox and Sawyer was a jazzercise man. Hilarious.

Let’s take it way back 12 years ago to 1997….. I met his hotness on Circle Christian School grounds.  We were both being home schooled at the time.  He was very good friends with my amazing friend Elizabeth Anderson.   Elizabeth and I both were taking a Spanish class together and both needed some major tutoring..we were not very good at the Espanol to say the least.   Justin occasionally came into our class because he had a class right after us in Spanish V or something crazy…

Well Elizabeth and Justin began to get closer and closer, but I don’t think they ever really labeled it “dating” or “going out”. ha.   I had my eye on some other super cool homeschooler haha.  In the meantime, Justin and I were always really good friends and never lost touch with each other through the years.  He would call me or I would call him to see how eachother was doing.  We would always get into discussions about God, music and dance.   Then there were other silly times when I would call him with a really deep voice, acting as if I was one of his buddies.  I really got him a few times! ha.  Don’t ask why I did this..but I thought it was hilarious and he was pretty darn shocked that I could make my voice go so low. lol.  After a year or so my besty, Elizabeth, moved to Tennessee..I miss her so much.

Year 1999; After long night talks and ramblings of life that had gone on for a while,  it all kind of came to a hault around this year as we both did other things and started getting serious with other people.  I was going to Africa for a few weeks, switched schools and he was playing with his super cool band Entertaining Stewart and thinking about going  to design school.  Both of our hearts had fallen in love and both of them had been broken within these few years. We both loved and learned and don’t regret a thing.

Year 2001; This was a big year!  I graduated, got a job at an orthodontist as a records technician (yes, I was the one that made you gag on the molds and took those ugly photos).  I was a leader at the Element Student Ministry at Discovery Church, getting ready to sign up for Makeup School at Joe Blasco Makeup Center.   I can’t remember for the life of me how we started talking again but I’m pretty sure he called me and invited me to one his shows, either at Caffeine or Stone Soup Collective.  Well, when I saw him on stage singing and playing his guitar, he stole my heart.  But, he never knew.  We started hanging out more and more and just loved spending time with him.  His heart was amazing and I must say, he was pretty dang cute with his high socks, chucks and long stick up hair.

New Years Eve Concert 2001: Justin invited me to one his concerts at Westwood on New Years Eve.   This was such a memorable night…I ran the merch table and watched them play with his brothers.  It was such a great show and lots of friends and family came out.   I got to meet his Aunt Michelle that night, which was awesome to be able to meet some more close relatives of his.  Through the years I have grown to love her so so much.  After we counted down to year 2002, Justin and I walked outside to my car, this is the moment we have all been waiting for.   He finally kissed me in public around all of his friends but still kept it private enough to make it that much more special.  He then asked me to be his GIRLFRIEND! Would I?!! OF COURSE!   After that we grew as a happy couple, went to many local concerts at The Social and went on trips with family and friends.  He has always been a great friend but now he had become my closest and best friend I had ever had,  one that didn’t waver or push me aside.   He would keep me accountable, encourage me, when I was down in the dumps he would help me through it and encourage me to look to Jesus for strength and best of all he would constantly make me laugh.  I loved his attributes and character, he was a little coleric and a realist but I loved that in him.  We were the perfect balance of character as I am the farthest thing from coleric and I’m a dreamer.    The picture below is a photo of the big night! This picture is displayed in our home..we LOVE IT and it means so much to us as it was, indeed, the beginning of “us”.

January, 2004;  After 3 years of being together and learning more and more about him, I completely fell in love. I had always loved him, even back in 1997 but it wasn’t the same thing.   This was a pure and natural “in love” kind of love.    My family decided to go to Vermont for a family vacation, my sisters husband came and Justin came along too!   After doing some skiing and sitting by the fire, we all headed out to Manchester.  Manchester is a small town in Vermont and the boys said they knew of an awesome restaurant they wanted to take us too.  So we all piled up in the rental and drove for about 30 minutes, we finally pulled up to a restaurant called “The Perfect Wife Restaurant and Tavern”.  I thought it was the coolest name and thought it was a really neat gesture my dad and my brother in law had for their wives.

After our wonderful dinner, Justin mentioned there being a desert slash bar slash live music on the second floor of the restaurant and that we should check it out.  Everyone was in for it, so we mosied up with our mittens and jackets on because it was about 20 degrees and snowing..we all got some hot cocoa and waited for the band to start.  I looked to my right, as Justin was sitting there moments before, and now no where to be found, he vanished!  I asked my mom to my left where the heck he went, she said probably to the bathroom.  About 10 minutes went by and I was starting to get worried.  Moments later I see Justin gabbin with the guy from the band, 2 minutes later he grabs the guys guitar and jumps on stage..ahh! I thought to myself, “what the heck is he doing?” Next thing I know he is dedicating the song to me and singing a song he wrote of what has been on his heart for the last several years.   I was kind of unemotional at first and still had no idea what he was doing..but then towards the end of the song he starts to sing lyrics like “all you have to say yes”..I then grabbed my mom’s hand and squeezed it with all my might!  I started crying, I finally was figuring out what was happening.  The ditz in me that Justin saw back in 1997 was showing through and through .    After he was done with his song the bar let out a cheer and an “aww”… he then walked over to me, looked at me as if I was the only one in the room, got on one knee and proposed!!!  He tried putting the most beautiful ring on my finger but I still had my mittens on…hahaha. I quickly took them off!  After many many tears and video rolling we were able to capture some pretty precious moments!  It was truly the most amazing moment of my life.   In sheer excitement, we set a date that night and decided the big day would be October 23rd, 2004.  Since then it has been the most amazing and exciting 1,769 days of my life. I don’t know what I would do without him in my life.  He keeps me going, encourages me, provides for me, and keeps my head on straight daily.  The problem is he doesn’t know how really GREAT he is.

Here are some pictures from the big night!

Proposal song – he was a little nervous

Listen to Changed By You – by Justin Kirkland

My reaction

The proposal video

The proposal

I said Yes!

The happiest night to date!

Wedding day post coming up soon…

He is quite a remarkable little man, at about a month old he started sleeping 5 – 7 hours each night. I believe in, what I like to call the “BSB” method; Boob, Swaddle, Bedtime (sometimes I do a bath first but not every night). I tend to put him to bed with his eyes wide open so he gets used to going to bed even if he’s not tired.  We will see how long that lasts but so far he falls right to sleep.   SO blessed he’s sleeping through the night!

We are pretty in love with him, he has such a joyful and sweet spirit.  I caught him today looking out the window, he was smiling so big!  I suspect he saw Jesus.  His first smiles have been amazing to see, it just melts my heart to pieces.  He hasn’t laughed yet but I’m waiting very patiently impatiently.

He loves to snuggle with us, I will be very sad if and when this stops.

We moved his cradle from our room to his room and was in that for about a month.  Now he is in his big boy crib! Sad that he’s getting older but proud that he is such a big boy!

I went to the OB’s office to see if Sawyer was still breech because I wasn’t dilated  and only having braxton hicks contraction.  Since I was a week away from my due date they were curious to see if he was still breech.  I was praying to God that he was head down and ready to go.  No such luck, I went in and Sawyer was in the transverse breech position (Sideways).  The moment my doctor told me this I was filled with anxiety.  The next thing that came out of her mouth was the one thing that I had been fearing my entire pregnancy.  She told me that they needed to schedule me to have Caesarean Section.  Tears started to fall right there in the office, I was so scared.  Let me remind you, I originally was planning on having a homebirth and doing everything natural with no drugs in the comfort of my own home.   None of this was in MY plan. She continued to tell me that she didn’t want me to go into labor or contract as this could result in an emergency situation.  In fear of an emergency situation we scheduled it for January 4th.

As the days grew shorter and shorter leading up to the 4th I was full of fear, anxiety, and sadness.  After a lot of prayer and encouraging conversations with family and friends I was reminded that MY plans are not always in the cards.  God is in control, NOT ME.  I was trying to control every little thing, from the 3 page birth plan to being bitter about even having him in a hospital.  After being reminded of these things, all I REALLY wanted was to have a healthy baby.  It didn’t matter where I had him, what night gown I had on, or if I could have candles or not.  It was a defining moment in my life where God’s plan for my life is better than my own.  Random people would tell me to keep an open mind during my whole pregnancy, I’m glad I listened.

January 4th came quickly as Justin and I drove up to Winnie Palmer..

We were to be there at 11:30am and would be going straight into pre op for the epidural and other fun things. My Momma met us there for support. I had the best anesthesiologist! Her name is Tarrah Bobay! Thanks again Tarrah!

So it was 1:30pm, epideral in and couldn’t feel a thing.  Kind of scary, it felt like I had no legs.  Not a fan of the feeling at all!  They then wheeled me into the OR, I started getting the shakes from the nerves and epideral.

After a ton of pulling, tugging, smells and noises I wish to forget, my baby boy had arrived! They continued pushing and tugging and they told me I had a bifurcated uterus, which means I had heart shaped uterus and possibly one fallopian tube.  Sawyer was never able to go head down because of the shape of my uterus and it was a miracle that I got pregnant after the first try with one fallopian tube!  The Doctor said he couldn’t believe I carried him full term with my uterus.   Sawyer was only able to hang out in the right chamber of the heart shape and couldn’t get over to the other side because of the seem.  CRAZY! Its all a miracle!  Sawyer has a small storks bite on his forehead but will fade with time, other than that he has no other issues.  PRAISE GOD!

If it wasn’t for God intervening in so many areas I don’t know where I would be or my son.  God knew exactly what was to happen which led me down the roads he provided.

Here are a few photos:

Hearing his cry for the first time and my reaction..the sound of this was music to my ears

First Family photo

Timeline

April – Got pregnant

May – Picked a midwife for delivery in my home (the wonderful Diane Albright)

October – Appendix almost ruptured and had it removed (6 days in hospital)

October – Felt as if I should pray long and hard about delivering at home and felt God telling to deliver in a hospital

November – Kidney stones (4 days in hospital)

April to January – Breech baby

January – Ended in Ceasarean and a Beautiful baby boy!

All of this could have gone completely different if I hadn’t heard God right.  God had all of these things lined up so I would make the right choice. God is good.

Full of unspeakable joy!

LOVE

]]> http://www.lindseyandjustin.com/2010/02/25/sawyers-birth-story/feed/ 7 http://www.lindseyandjustin.com/2010/01/04/hes-arrived/ http://www.lindseyandjustin.com/2010/01/04/hes-arrived/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:44:32 +0000 Lindsey http://www.lindseyandjustin.com/?p=631

Sawyer Bryant Kirkland

Born at 2:20pm on January 4th, 2010

19.5 inches long 7 lbs 14 ounces

“There are two great day in everyones life; the day you were born and the day you firgured out why”

“I am changed by you and I cannot stop staring..”

I start my maternity leave tomorrow!!! Praise God!!  It will be nice to be able to sleep in a little and get my rest before the little one comes.  I’m not getting too much rest at night because my 6 1/2 pounder is kicking, jabbing, and bobbing his head around down south..it doesn’t feel so hot.  I know I will probably miss feeling him in my belly once he’s out..but since we will be having several more I don’t see that being a big issue.

Other than feeling like a balloon and feeling as if I have a bowling ball between my legs, I’m feeling really good!  My BH contractions have gotten more uncomfortable and take my breath away at times.  My energy has slipped a little but not enough to not allow me to throw a dinner party! Oh no, not me! ha, it may have been a little work but it turned out perfect and just what we wanted.  We made a delicious Apricot glazed Turkey with herb Butter and it came out great for our first time cooking one! We may have had a fire that blew out of the oven but everyone came out alive, wasn’t laughing then but laughing now!  Justin and I wanted to share the holidays with our “extended family” and just enjoy eachother before babyk comes.  I may have been contracting the entire time but I just think it means Babyk will be alert and very social! ha, he must love laughter, music and yummy arromas! :)

Here are some pictures from the night!