One year ago this weekend...

...I ran the Big Sur Half Marathon with my bestie Jenna (I didn't yet know I was pregnant, though I was about 4 1/2 weeks).  It was an awesome girls weekend with one of the most amazing people I've ever known.  Seriously, this chick is crazy gorgeous, a super intelligent transportation engineer, hysterically funny, selfless, and so, so, humble.  I am incredibly blessed to be able to call her a friend.  She recently got promoted and is moving to Charlotte, NC in January.  I will miss you being only an hour away, but I am so, so, proud of you Jenna! 

I've been trying to get back into running, but it's really hard to find the time to go without Adalyn.  I'm just not ready to take her to the daycare at the gym, and it's pitch black out by the time Andrew gets home from work.  For now, I jog with the stroller.  A year ago, I was getting up and running 8 miles before church.  Now, Andrew, Adalyn, and I get to church about 10 minutes late - and this is how we get our Sunday runs in:

My freakin running clothes are so daaarn tight! 

awww Family Photos

I can't post any of these pictures without a HUGE thank you to my super awesome friend, Melissa (of http://www.melissakircher.com/).  On top of being an incredibly talented artist and photographer, she is an absolutely gorgeous, intelligent, and inspiring Christian woman.  And as it turns out, a really funny blogger.  Check out her blog on marriage and such at http://www.holymessofmarriage.com/ .

More shoutouts:  Yes, I did pick out two sets of coordinating (not matching) outfits for the photos and I'm happy with the outcome.  I owe this to my not in real life bumpie friend, Leah. 

Check out her pointers here:
http://www.maritalbless.com/2010/09/makings-of-outift.html

Side note:  On the way to the shoot, Andrew was griping about the argyle sweater.  Not.His.Style.  I told him that I didn't feel like he appreciated my efforts to make sure our pictures looked good and we looked put together.  He sarcastically said that he wished I put as much effort into a home cooked meal.  ummm yea, he said THAT.  And THAT marked the end of me calling him in the evenings to pick up dinner because I just didn't feel like cooking.  Save your, "OH NO HE DIDN!"s because honestly, he deserves a home cooked meal.  He works so hard for us - and well, I can't use the "new mom" excuse forever, right?

Oh, and I couldn't help but bring back The Flower:

Sorry Adalyn.  One day, when I'm in a nursing home and you have to come groom me because I can't groom myself, you can find an obnoxious headband and pay me back.  I probably won't know any different.















Some of my favorites:

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Vegan Pumpkin Muffins...and Pearls.

I've been trying out a bunch of different dinner and dessert recipes to accomodate my dairy-free diet.  If there is anything I miss more than cheese, it's baked goods.  Baking has always been a hobby of mine, and I didn't want to give it up just because I can't use butter and milk.  I'll continue to post some yummy dairy-free recipes for all of my nursing mama readers that can't have the real deal.  Most dairy-free recipes I've found also happen to be vegan (i.e. no animal stuff).  The plus side to this?  No raw eggs.  So pregnant mamas and little ones, eat your heart out of the batter! 

I made these yesterday (recipe from http://www.veganpeace.com/) and they are perfection.  Please don't mind the Winnie the Pooh cupcake liners.  I like to use liners with muffins because they are easier to grab and go and Andrew had to take a 6am train to Boston this morning. That didn't explain the Winnie the Pooh, did it?  ;)

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tblsp. baking power
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. all spice
1/8 tsp. cloves
1 cup canned pumpkin (don't use pumpkin pie mix)
1/2 cup soy or almond milk (I used almond)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tblsp. molasses

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 and line or grease a 12 muffin tin.
Mix flour, sugar, baking power, salt  and spices.  Then add pumpkin, milk, oil, and molasss.  Mix well and then fill the muffin cups 2/3 full.  Bake for 18-20 min. or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

You can also add nuts, raisins, cranberries, etc., but I didn't feel like.

YUMMMY GOODNESS:

And just for smiles, some photos of Adalyn I took over the weekend.  I am experimenting with settings on my new camera, and I'm upset some of them didn't come out that sharp, but I think they are still worth posting.  Enjoy :)

New Parents and Newlyweds

So Andrew and I have been married for 8 months and it feels like, well, like it's been 8 months. I have to say, we live pretty well together and I think we're still in that newlywed phase.  He totally gets my quirkiness with all things needing to be clean and put in their place (which by the way has only intensified since having a baby), and I've come to accept his throw everything, everywhere attitude. Our place in SMALL and when it's messy....well, I never let it get messy :). 

Andrew's learned a lot from living with me and is now an expert vacuumer and shower cleaner.  If I could only get him to not to throw his clothes everywhere (he blames this particular habit on his college roomate, Josh.  Thankfully, Josh recently moved in with his girlfriend, so I'm pretty sure he'll be refined in no time as well ...go Noor!).  Obviously, I've learned a lot from living with Andrew too, and despite our lifestyles having to change with the baby (i.e. no more hikes or 30 mile bike rides), I know I can speak for him and say that we are both really happy together. 

But marriage is about soooo much more than living well together and making each other happy.  Andrew and I are both Christians (but, "Wait!" you say.  "You were totally pregnant before you were married".  I know, I will elaborate on all of this in another post very soon..I digress), so we believe that there is a biblical purpose to our marriage.  To paraphrase an awesome set of sermons on marriage by Tim Keller, our purpose is to move together toward a common horizon of Christ-like people, of our future selves. 

When we first started dating, we went to a small group bible study that was listening to Tim Keller's set of sermons on marriage.  To keep this post from getting too long, I will just say that my idea of marriage was radically changed.  In my new idea of marriage, Jesus is there too.  Sort of like, at the top of our pyramid if you will.  Anyway, with all of the excitement and life changes that came with Adalyn, Andrew and I realized that besides a prayer before we eat, prayers for friends and family before bed and church on Sundays, God has sort of been absent from our marriage.  He is there obviously, but we haven't really invited Him to the party.  So, we are going to start to listen to Tim Keller's set on marriage again.  It's been 2 years, and now we actually know what marriage is like, and we figure it's a good start.  There are 9 of them and they are each about 45 minutes.  We'll listen to one each week, maybe together, maybe on our own time, but then have a discussion about it together once a week.  Can someone out there hold us accountable?  ha.

You can listen to them here: http://sermons.redeemer.com/store/index.cfm?product=18279

I'm just so incredibly thankful that he is the man God picked for me.

Well at least she's got my legs!

I am fully aware that Adalyn is a female carbon copy of Andrew.  It's hard for me to find anything of myself in her (except for when she protests naps)....until today!  She's always been in the 75th percentile for height, but today, after asking the nurse to double check and measure her again, she came in at 26.25" long (100th percentile)...mostly legs.  She might as well be a 5 month old.  And I love it.  I hope she gets my 34" inseam.  That is all.  Oh, and Andrew came home from work early and told me it was National Men Cook Dinner Day.  He's awesome.  It's a legit day - look:
http://www.menmakedinnerday.com/

Wait, I have a blog?!

I hope the craziness of life with a new baby is a good excuse to not have updated this in a while.  I feel bad, mostly because I wanted to have the first few months of Adalyn's life detailed for her when she is older.  There's been times when I could update it, but I honestly couldn't spend time typing this until all of our thank you cards were written.  Those were extremely past-due, and I'm so embarrased for making all of our generous friends and family wait so long.  Truth be told, there are ones that Andrew still needs to write, and he is getting to them - work has just been a little crazy.

Anyway, life around our place is just about the opposite of crazy now.  I am so thrilled to say that we have an "easy" baby now.  Weeks 3-6 with her were pretty difficult until we found out that she had a milk protein allergy.  Cutting dairy out of my diet and getting my oversupply under control in combination with her just simply developing more emotionally, has made all the difference!  Her pediatrician says babies usually outgrow the allergy by a year, and I'll start introducing some back at 6 mos. I actually snuck Halloween candy and we didn't see a difference.  Adalyn is incredible and more and more fun everyday.  And she seriously only cries when she's hungry or overtired...wet diapers don't even bother her!

Her 2 month pictures:

The biggest complaint of the last two months was this awful, extremely rare case of a post partum PUPPP rash (read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruritic_urticarial_papules_and_plaques_of_pregnancy ). 

At about 8 weeks, I had a few little bumps on my stomach that I thought were bug bites, but soon spread EVERYWHERE over my body.  The dermatologist said this was the first case he'd seen this late after delivery in his 25 years of practice - go figure!  It finally cleared up about 3 weeks ago, but it does flare up time to time.  My body has seemed to bounce back from pregnancy really well and except for a stubborn 7lbs left to lose, there aren't any signs that I was pregnant at all - so thankful!

Andrew is working on all of his applications to business school and actually retaking the GMAT one more time.  He only wants to go to a top ten, so the better the score, the better his chances of getting in and getting to pick where to go.  Personally, I hope he gets into Harvard or MIT.  I've always wanted to live in Boston for a bit.  Columbia would be cool too, but I'm little anxious about living in NYC with a one year old!  And for all our Texan family - he's applying to UT as well..so you never know!

Adalyn, our sweet baby girl, turned 3 months on Sunday.  I can't believe it.  She has changed so much in so little time. 

Soooo over the photoshoot:

Her first true social smile was the best thing ever (6 weeks, 1 day).  She rolled over front to back once at 8 weeks one day, and started try to roll back to front at 11 weeks.  Poor thing
can turn everything over but her one hand. 

She hasn't quite figured out how to move it from under her body yet.  Her morning smiles get me everytime, and now she is even laughing back at you.  About 2 weeks ago, she started these hysterical baby squeals - they are extrememly high pitched and kind of sound like a dolphin if you ask me.  She does them out of excitement, I think.  And just yesterday, I caught her babbling to her "sea friends" on her mobile.  I put her down for a nap, and all she wanted to do was play...sigh.  She can stand when holding her and has great head control.  She loves facing out of the Baby Bjorn.  I can get laundry and cooking done a whole lot easier now!

She flew on her first airplane and used her passport for the first time:

Experienced her first snowfall:

And of course, had her first Halloween (as a zebra!)

November promises to be another great month as we travel to Texas with her for the first time!

2 month stats:  11lbs, 1oz. 23.25 inches long

3 month stats after Dr.'s appt tomorrow.

Lord, thank you so much for this precious gift.  I know that she is really Yours and we feel so blessed to get to love and care for her in this world.