One Month

Four whole weeks have past since the day that Jonah was born, and it's almost impossible to put into words how in love we are with this little boy. There are times that I just look over at Jonah and smile to Keith, "he's just SO CUTE!" It's overwhelming. He certainly has been keeping us on our toes, and keeping us pretty tired since he arrived, but overall we couldn't be more thankful for our happy, sweet baby (and all the googly eyes he gives us). These past four weeks have been some of the fastest of my life, but they have been full of smiles, laughter and just a few tears. Thankfully he loves to eat, and loves to sleep... with just a little fussing in between occasionally. We're so happy that this month has been filled with friends and family, and that we've gotten to share Jonah with so many people who love us so well. In this month we've been blessed beyond belief with meals, groceries and visitors who've come with open arms to help in any way we've needed. It's beyond amazing! 

Here are some of Jonah's milestones for the month:

He's gained almost 3 pounds, and grown 2 1/2 inches 

He has lost most of the hair on the front of his head (making him look even more like an old man)

He has fallen into a fairly regular 3 hour schedule of eating, playing and then sleeping

At night, he's been giving us some longer stretches of sleep, the best being 6 consecutive hours!

He's cheeks and belly have expanded generously, but we're still waiting for some chub on his arms/legs

He calms to the sound of our voices, and falls asleep when we rub his forehead

He loves/hates the swaddle and spends most of the night trying to break out

His baby acne is starting to clear up, but he still loves to scratch his face

He has been giving us lots of smiles, and has started talking and cooing at us

He tries to fight it, but the car puts him to sleep every time. 

He has peed on pretty much everyone who has changed him (dad being the most common victim)

He loves his bouncy chair, and the swing

He took very well to a pacifier, and has already drank 2 bottles with daddy in prep for school

He's been to a couple restaurants, and slept through it every time

He and I have gotten out of the house together quite a bit, and though we try to time it perfectly... we've nursed in a couple bathrooms, cars and friends houses. He doesn't seem to mind very much

He LOVES to kick! (which I already knew from his time in the womb...)

He likes to be held and rocked, but doesn't mind when we lay him down in his crib to sleep

His eyes are getting bluer by the day

He makes lots of startled/grumpy faces in pictures, but he's such a happy boy :)

We love you Jonah!

3 Years

I can hardly believe that three whole years have passed since we said vows and promised to be a team forever. So much has changed in these years- for better or for worse, and we made the best of it all together. Never once in the past 1096 days did I ever want to quit or give up. This life journey we're on wouldn't be nearly as exciting without my partner. Husband of mine: you are the greatest! Here are some of the highlights these past three years:

We've lived in 2 different states, and 4 different homes.

We've had 8 different jobs between the two of us (5 for me, 3 for him).

We've bought 2 cars and a scooter.

We've travelled high and low; in cars, planes and boats.

We've loved and lost our first pet.

We've spent holidays with family, and alone.

We've gone on adventures in our cities and eaten all kinds of amazing foods.

We've run for miles and miles together, and biked a few too.

We've stayed up late talking about all the things that may come next.

We've watched countless movies and tv shows together on our brown leather couch.

We've acted like kids and fought over who does the dishes next.

We've jumped in the snow and lounged in the sand.

We've gone on hundreds of dates.

We've made new friends, and felt thankful for the old ones.

We've gone to sporting events and concerts.

We've watched dozens of friends get married as well.

We've cooked, and baked and hiked and climbed and all the while... we have loved.

But the greatest thing that we've done in all three of these years? We made a BABY! and he's the sweetest and squishiest little baby there ever was. Thank you Keith for giving me Jonah. If he grew up to be just like you, I would have no complaints.

Marriage has made us the best of friends, and now it has made us parents too. Here's to many more fabulous years together!

2012 Review

It's honestly hard to believe that I'm sitting down and writing one of these again... how has another year gone by so quickly?! 2012 was definitely an interesting year for us, one full of even more transitions and changes! I think that we've finally settled into the fact that we weren't meant to lead a sedentary life; we were meant to move and travel and explore... and even though it's absolutely TIRING to change houses and jobs as often as we have in our two year marriage, we're thankful for every experience we've had so far. 2013 though? This one's going to be a doozy! Before we get into that though, let's look back at 2012:

In January we rang in the new year with some close friends, and Keith's mom shared a huge pile of his adorable baby photos. I read a really inspiring book about food, made some seriously delicious oreo chip cookies and our friends Janelle and Christian came to town! We had such a blast with them that they ended up staying a few extra days haha. We went to a Preds game to cheer on our Flyers, spent lots of great time with friends and I taught lots of art. Then at long last! We found a new home! (with central heat, a dishwasher, a deck and all those other fun things our first house didn't have)

February was a cold one in Nashville but we continued to marvel at all the delicious goodies we received in our CSA box. We ran our first race together (and did really well despite the rain!) then we got to use our free tickets to see another Preds game. We tried (and liked!) brussel sprouts for the first time, and got fancied up for a Valentines Day date. I seemed to just keep getting sick all month, but we had lots of fun at our seemingly annual Super Bowl party. Lastly, we got ready to move and I shared lots of fun art lessons!

March was so busy! I didn't realize how busy it was until I just looked back at all the fun stuff we did haha. We started the month by saying goodbye to our old house and making our new house feel more like home. We saw some live music, I let my students make messes, we fixed up our deck and then enjoyed it with friends. We got to see one of our most favorite bands, Mumford and Sons and I had some major break throughs with my little artists. On the same day, we showered Jordie with pre-wedding love AND got to celebrate baby Sage's first birthday! Then our good friends in Lulu Mae  released an album! We had lots of friends come visit, and built a fire or two, took Keith's brother and friends to their first honky tonk, and my kids painted some more. At the end of the month we spontaneously went to see The Head and the Heart and Jordie had us over for a ladies wedding craft night.

April! Another super busy one, but I guess that can go without saying at this point... Keith started the month out with some drastic hair transformations, creeper. We ran our first 10K on our road to half marathon success, my students made some starry night cityscapes and then dyed hundreds of Easter eggs. Keith and I had a fun day off together, we had a great dinner date at Loveless and saw one of the bands Keith represents, and then I updated everyone on my new summer job. THEN! Keith turned 26! We celebrated by roadtripping to Atlanta with the Ezell's for Braves opening day, and having a get together with Jordie, whose birthday is the same day. Speaking of April birthdays... I wrote a post about my youngest cousin Jack turning 14, I shared some photos of our new "office", we ran our last long run before the half marathon, and we celebrated Jamie's birthday with ice cream! Last but not least, my parents came to visit for my Dad's birthday and we ran a really long way... but I'll talk more about that in May...

We were all over the place in May! What a fun month to look back on. It started with a recap of our half marathon race and my family's visit to Nashville. I still can't believe we ran 13 miles! Cross that one off the bucket list :) Keith took me to see one of my favorite high school bands, The Rocket Summer, which was a blast! I got a little behind on posts and did an instagram catch up, then I finished up the school year with my after school program. Then began the Trent and Jordie wedding madness! First was the bachelorette party, the rehearsal and finally the wedding day. Oh and somewhere in there I got my wisdom teeth out... bummer. We ended the month by leaving Nashville entirely. Our first stop was Charlottesville, VA then to Tim and Gillian's wedding in New Jersey. We got to spend some quality time with Dan and Aly in Philadelphia before heading to New York City to run around with my brother and best friends. Before heading home we also visited the Natural History Museum, and then got to DC to stay with Kate and Anna and play at the zoo. It was a crazy, hysterical, tiring, and amazingly fun trip! #richardsroadtrip2012!!

In June we did what all true Nashville music lovers do... we bummed tickets to Bonnaroo! I had low expectations, but I think you can see from the photos. We had a blast! Next up was a going away party for our friend Ives, which was very bittersweet. We had the most perfect Sunday, I attended a ladies night, wrote a Father's Day  note to my dad and said happy birthday to my big brother. We started taking hikes and then Keith left town (but not without buying me doughnuts!) Then I got to share some of the awesomeness that came out of my first session at camp! We went to a rained out Sounds game and said happy birthday to our friend Sammie... oh and then I got to walk down memory lane because MobileMe was getting ready to delete all my albums. Lastly we grilled a DELICIOUS pizza and complained about Nashville summer heat, ugh.

July was another HOT one. In the winter I always seem to forget what an awful heat trap Nashville can be, bleck! I started the month by baking (isn't that ironic?) and I posted about a ladies night and FINALLY getting to see Moonrise Kingdom. My campers made some even MORE impressive art and we got some friends together to go Honky Tonkin for McKel's birthday. Still right at the beginning of the month my uncle came to town to celebrate his birthday by touring the town and seeing Ringo Starr at the Ryman... what a night to remember! Then it was time to celebrate the fourth with possibly the hottest day of the year. I wrote about my (then) upcoming adventure as a preschool teacher, showed off some more camper artwork and we spent a whole weekend with the Bergers. At the end of the month Keith took me to see one of my all time favorite bands Death Cab for Cutie which made me SO nostalgic, and I wrote about some quaint coffee dates that I had with lady friends.

August: here's where I started my full time job and the pictures/posts will start getting a bit thin. Bear with me! My new years resolution is to get better about documenting. NO MATTER WHAT! I started the first of the month by showing off my classroom, and saying goodbye to camp. We also took a very fun tour of the Corsair Distillery with the Bergers and drove to Georgia to wish Keith's grandpa a happy 75th birthday! Our cute little wedding venue was recognized in local newspapers and I felt proud :) then we had the perfect Nashville day, complete with bike rides in our favorite park! On the eve of our anniversary I wrote some lovey dovey words to my better half and even shared some of the funnest pictures from two years prior. Last but not least! At the end of the month Keith's family came to town to celebrate his mothers (50th) birthday with a trip to the Ryman to see the B52's! We danced our butt's off, what a night!

In September I only posted 4 times, womp wompppp. But at least they were all great posts? That makes it better right? We started the month with a getaway to Destin, FL which was so AWESOME, I want to go back every month. There is something to be said about a true vacation! We also went rock climbing with the Bergers and Keith's college band played a reunion show. That's all we did? Oh wait! Keith went to GA to see Chipper's last home game with the Braves. Phew... I knew there was more ;)

October is a hard one to keep track of. I was just drowning in work and too tired to sit at my computer in the evenings so updates were few and far between. Still.. Anna came to visit, I checked in once or twice and wrote about some of the bands Keith was working with. We took weekend hiking and biking adventures and then we travelled all the way to Key West for maybe one of the most memorable vacations of our life! Kathleen and Renee got married and then we partied for 3 days haha

November... here's where things get interesting. Nothing that I posted in November actually HAPPENED in November... but let's just go with it. Here are some photos and things from October and November (that I didn't put up until December) this whole working full time thing does not do wonders for my internet time haha. I started with an update about: Halloween, dinner dates with friends, a lady day with Jamie and an extremely cold trip to Musician's Corner. Then I turned 25 with the help of lots of friends. We spent Thanksgiving in Nashville with the Negleys and had even more weekends with our best buds.

December posts all seemed to happen on Christmas Day. It's a wonder what all you can accomplish with a 2 week break from work! I posted about holiday decorations at our house, and then outtakes from our Christmas cards. I also shared photos from Christmas in Georgia and then in Florida!

Wow 2012... you were impressive! I kind of forgot about half of the awesome things that happened! I can honestly say that we have the coolest friends and family around, and I think that all the trips we took, and visitors that we had can prove that they're the best. This year was a defining one in the fact that our home and careers became much more settled. I've run out of free time, or truly... I've prioritized my time differently. The last 4 months have been more about loving and spending time with Keith and less about sitting at the computer. We have such a great life! I love going on adventures with my husband and I hope that is something that never changes.

As we're on the brink of 2013, we're bracing ourselves for our most adventurous year yet! I can't wait to share as many of those moments here as possible. Thank you so much for reading and keeping up with our lives so faithfully! Happy New Year from the Richards!!!