5 Years

This weekend was full of lace, lavender and tiffany blue! Oh and dirt, but I'll get to that :).  I video taped a girl's wedding from church and HAD A BLAST!!  Here's a quick pic of the gorgeous bride and groom...

However, I wanted to be sure that my groom and I celebrated our day as well, so here's a look back on the past 5 years via blog posts...

Wedding day Recap

Our Wedding Book

Honeymoon Recap

First Christmas

1st Anniversary Trip to South Carolina

I wrote this poem here for our 1 year anniversary, but I wanted to re-post the whole thing just in case you don't click on the link :)

One year ago I put on a dress
You put on a tux and looked your best

One year ago you held some flowers
Your back was turned for what seemed like hours

One year ago you turned around
and for the first time that day we looked each other up and down

One year ago pictures were taken
one after the other memories we were making

One year ago I rode a horse and carriage
to begin a life and a long lasting marriage

One year ago the raindrops fell
I didn't even cry or yell

One year ago my daddy gave me away
after the clouds parted and dropped down the rays

One year ago we both said "I Do"
We became one in something new

One year ago was one of the best days of my life
I love living God's plan and being your wife

Happy Anniversary Gary!!  I love you!!

During our 2nd year of marriage we traveled the world!!!!

We're moving to Malaysia
Thanksgiving in Malaysia
First Chinese Wedding
Langkawi
A Malaysian New Years
My Birthday - Malaysia Style
Our Awesome Church Family in Malaysia
Sleepover with the youth from church
Malacca
We went to Singapore, but I guess I never blogged about it...sad day!!
We went to India...Twice!!
Celebrated our 2 year anniversary in Chicago!!

Year 3:
A look back on 5 years of dating...this includes some Singapore pictures :)
We bought a car!
Gary lost his Grandfather
We got dirty in the Warrior Dash
First Marriage Retreat!!
One of Many No Shave Novembers
We went camping for our 3 year anniversary!!

Year 4:
Gary turned the big 3-0!!
Australia
New Zealand in a few days, which included an SFT Workshop
Oregon/Cali for Brandon and Kelsy's Wedding
I lost my Grandfather!
We got pregnant!!!!!!
There was no anniversary trip because we were too busy lovin' on our Wrennie!!

Year 5 has pretty much evolved around our sweet little baby, but it's been soooo fun and I love seeing Gary as a Daddy!!
Our first Family Retreat.
We I Love Softball!!
Our first 4 day trip away from Wren.
A post I wrote about Gary :).  Love him!!
A look back on our sweet girl's first year!

Last weekend after the wedding was complete and I taught my Sunday morning 2 year old class, we loaded up the car to the camp ground!  First family camping trip was AMAZING!!!



This weekend, Wren is staying with my parents and Gary and I are headed to East Tennessee for a friend's wedding and a little alone time ;).

I love this man and have loved every minute of the past 5 years of marriage!!!  I've loved the sad times, the happy times, the hurtful times and the shameful times because no matter what I know that he loves me and that's the best feeling in the world!!

Happy Anniversary to my sweet sweet husband!!

Kimberly

P.S. I think I've really been in a look back mood lately...hope y'all are enjoying as much as I am :)

There's A First Time for Everything

It all started on May 11, 2013 when Gary and I FIRST became parents to our perfect little baby, Gwyneth Wren Washer.

So it began OUR YEAR OF FIRSTS

My FIRST Mother's Day

Wren's First Manicure

Wren's FIRST fishing lesson

FIRST photo session with Shonta

FIRST bath (for Wren...not us)

First man in her life

First trip to Backwoods

First time to church

Gary's FIRST Father's Day

First Car Mechanics Lesson

First Cooking Lesson

First Holiday Season

Mine & Wren's FIRST ACN Convention

FIRST sporting event (watching her cousin, Elizabeth, play volleyball)

FIRST piano lesson

FIRST laugh (7/31) - while I was changing her diaper
FIRST time to roll-over (9/16)
FIRST gun lesson (9/21) - Gary went dove hunting and showed her how the gun worked when he got home.
FIRST ride sitting up in the shopping cart (10/14) - Gary and I usually go to the grocery store together and when she was born that didn't change.  She usually does pretty good the entire trip, but sometimes I do have to let her start snacking before we make it to the check-out line.  Don't worry I still pay for everything.
FIRST crawl (11/26) - Thanksgiving week
FIRST spanking (1/2) - she was climbing on some metal chairs we had in the kitchen and they had already fallen on her once, but she thought they were so fun.  I finally had to smack that little leg and of course that brought on the awful cry face.
FIRST tooth (1/3) - felt that left bottom one coming in
FIRST step (3/19) - Gary and I decided her first step could only be declared when we both saw it & this is the first one we both saw...she was 10 months old.
FIRST tick (4/2) - during spring break her & her cousins spent a lot of time out at Granny & Pappy's (Gary's parents).  They live in the woods and when I was changing her clothes that night I noticed something on the back of her neck.  Sure enough it was a tick and she was champ while her daddy got it off.  I was a little proud because I grew up getting ticks all the time :)!

FIRST beach trip

FIRST fish fry - every year Gary's Pop has a fish fry and this year some of his family from Washington state was able to come.  The top right and the bottom are those family members.  The top right is Gary's Uncle Gary & Aunt Peggy.

FIRST time in Bible Class

FIRST time watching momma play softball

FIRST BIRTHDAY

                                

It has been a great year and seriously I can't believe it's over.  It's been so fun watching this little stinker grow and watching my precious husband be a daddy!  He is the best daddy!!

Here's the final monthly picture & update

                                 

She's walking all over the place.  She started walking about 2 weeks before her birthday and hasn't stopped.  There's plenty of face plants, but girl just gets right back up and keeps going.

Everyone told us when she started walking she would start sleeping better, but that's a big fat lie in our house!!  This week has been awful with sleeping.  She just won't go to sleep.  Gary and I were both so tired Monday & Tuesday that we just put her in the bed with us, which doesn't help us sleep any better because she is like her momma and a WIGGLE WORM!!!  She doesn't lay still when sleeps.  She sits up, plops down, puts her feet in your face, puts her butt in your face, kicks you in the stomach, it's insane!!  So last night I just couldn't take it anymore and I thought let's try putting her in her car seat.  We have done this once before and it worked great, but now that she's older I wasn't sure how it would work.  I put her in there and went straight to bed.  I woke up sometime around 4.  I felt around and there was no little person in the bed.  Gary kind of woke up and I asked if she was still in her seat, but he had put her in her bed before he came to bed!  YAHOO!!  SUCCESS!!  I've said it before & I'll say it again you gotta do what you gotta do!!  She just won't sit still when it's bed time, but putting her in her car seat made her sit still and that was all she needed.  She had honestly been doing pretty good up until this week, so I think she's getting some pretty important teeth in.  She's been extremely stuffy lately!

She now has 4 teeth!  Those two top teeth finally came in!

Her new favorite thing to eat is pretzels.  The first time she had them was at her party because they were the tail of the bird cake.  Here's her and her daddy sharing some pretzels the other day...

                                

aren't they the cutest!!

She can now show you how old she is!!  Here's the video!  I knew I wanted to teach my kids this when I saw another baby do it a few years ago!  It's the cutest thing and anytime I say her name now she just holds up a 1 because that's what she thinks I'm going to ask her :).

This past year has been one of the most exciting years and I'm even more excited to watch her grow & learn new things!  Gary & I love being mommy and daddy to our precious girl!  

Happy Birthday sweet Wrennie!  You make our lives so much more bright & fun!!

Love,

Your Momma

GOD IS GREAT - update post from "My Heart is Heavy"

Exactly a month ago I told you all about 2 situations to pray for.  let me just start by saying THANK YOU!  I know there were some serious prayers sent up for the Mobbs family and for Amanda!  It brings tears to my eyes as I start to type this out because if you don’t believe in God after hearing this I feel sorry for you and hope and pray that hearing these stories will show how truly amazing our Creator is!

A quick re-cap of the Mobb’s story: Austin & Karen were expecting their first baby and a month before they were due they found out Kinley had a brain tumor that would call for immediate surgery following delivery and at least a month stay in the NICU at Vanderbilt.  Our church rallied together to buy them gift cards for food, gas & whatever else they might have needed.  Some of the ladies made them a HUGE quilt to cuddle up in at the cold hospital.  Austin and Karen prepared themselves mentally, as much as they could, for the journey they were about to face. At 12:19pm they welcomed their precious baby girl, Kinley Lynn Mobbs, into the world.  She was 6lbs, 10oz & 20 inches long.  She was quickly taken to the NICU where they ran tests on her to see exactly what type of procedure she would need.  Every nurse in the NICU was shocked that she was in there because she looked so healthy.  The morning after she was born, Austin swung by the NICU to visit his daughter before running to his truck to get clean clothes so he could shower.  The neurologist comes while he is still there to tell him what they found.  Talk about a gut in your stomach!  Just like when they found out about the brain tumor, nobody involved was prepared for the news that followed.  The doctor said, “I don’t know what happened.  From the scans prior to her birth it was clearly a brain tumor, but it’s not.  She had a brain bleed that seems to be healing itself.”  So, what exactly does this mean?  What do we do?  I’m sure those were the questions running through Austin’s mind.  Needless to say, he didn’t shower anytime soon.  He ran back to Karen to tell her everything the doctor said.  I made them tell me this story when I went to visit last week and it gave me chills then & it’s giving me chills now.  The doctor said that they will scan her again in, I believe, 6 months to make sure everything looks great, but she should be completely fine.  They might see a few developmental delays, but that’s it.  I can’t imagine this feeling!  Thinking you’re going to spend a month at this hospital and then finding out you get to take your baby home in 2 days!!  That’s a GOD THING!  Gary and I were talking about it the other day and he asked me if I thought it was a brain tumor that God took away or if I thought it was always a brain bleed.  I asked Austin & Karen and they both said if everyone could have seen that ultrasound there was no doubt it was a tumor!  We serve an AMAZING GOD!!  I know Austin and Karen would still appreciate your prayers as they raise their sweet girl.  They may still have some complications so pray for that as well.

2 week old Kinley

Amanda’s story began when she passed out unexpectedly and was rushed to the hospital.  She didn’t have any major complications that would have caused this and they still aren’t even sure what it is/was.  They have their theories, but are not able to pin-point exactly what it was.  She was admitted into the hospital with her heart working at about 5%.  I have to say that it looked very grim that she would survive, much less wake up from the coma.  I am EXTREMELY HAPPY to announce that Amanda did wake up!!!  She is now breathing on her own, her heart is functioning at 100%, she is laughing, smiling and today she walked on the treadmill for 5 minutes!!  Seriously?!  Who else could make this possible, but God?  She obviously still has a long road to full recovery ahead of her, but to make this much progress in a month is remarkable!  Please continue to pray for her!

Amanda walking on the treadmill

I hope these two stories leave you feeling blessed!  It’s an awesome thing when we can see God’s power show in those around us!!

Kimberly