nav bar

Image Map

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

selflessness

Today I'm linking up for the Girl Between the Lines with A Beautiful Exchange and The Albrechts Blog.

The topic is: Tell us about a characteristic you admire in one of your loved ones. Why do you admire that characteristic?

I didn't even have to think twice about this one! The characteristic I admire most about my sweet husband is his selflessness. I don't think this man has a selfish bone in his body.

I've noticed this quality in him more and more since Crew was born 3 months ago. Even before I gave birth to Crew, Will would pick up my slack with cleaning, laundry and cooking. He's still picking up my slack and Crew is going on 14 weeks! I thank God every day for giving me a husband like this. I've never once had to ask him to do some laundry for me or unload the dishwasher. Being helpful around the house is something he finds joy in doing and that quality in him is such a blessing to me.


Besides always being so willing to help out around the house, Will never thinks twice about offering up his time to help a friend in need or with a church project. He is passionate about missions and his selflessness plays a huge part in that. He wants to go on every mission trip, volunteer with every church function, offer to help every friend move and on and on. 

I could learn so much from my husband. Becoming a mother has taught me so many things, one of them being how selfish I can be - how I crave sleep when I'm up in the middle of the night feeding our son or how I'd like to sleep in on Saturdays (do you see a sleep pattern here?) - Don't get me wrong, Crew is the greatest blessing in our life and I am so incredibly thankful for him. I would not change one single thing. Selflessness is something that doesn't come as easy for me as it seems to come for Will. With the example that my husband has set for me, and with a lot of prayer, I can hope to act as selfless as he does. I'm so so grateful that Will is not the opposite of selfless. What a blessing!



Girl Between the Lines Link up
post signature

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

crew | three months

Crew turned three months old on January 3rd.

The past month of Crew's life flew by just like the Christmas season did. He is growing more and more every day and we are so in love with our little talker! He has such a personality!

weight: 16.8 lbs!
length: at 2 month appointment he was 24.5 inches
clothes: 6 months
diapers: size 2 in disposables and wearing OS cloth
hair color: blondish-brown
eye color: blue
eating: still breastfeeding and occasionally supplementing formula if we are out & about. He takes around 6 oz. each feeding
nicknames: crew baby, crew man, crewster, C, crewseph, crew boo, crewdy booty (I'm sure he'll love that one when he gets older)
likes: (loves) baths, riding in the car, talking to you, smiling, being able to look around and see what's going on, play mat, being read to
dislikes: being hungry!



This was a big week for little Crew man. He slept 8 hours straight for the first (& only time) at night AND rolled over from belly to back. We managed to get that on video! I guess all that rolling made him sleepy enough to sleep 8 hours. (His typical sleep night these days is 5-7 hours, up to eat for 30 min, and then back to sleep for 3-4 more hours.)

We also started cloth diapering full time last week. It's going great and we love it. We still keep him in disposables overnight though since they hold more. Lovely Pockets and Sunbaby diapers are our favorites.


Crew went to his two month appointment this past week. He did great with his shots. He cried, but as soon as I picked him up he stopped crying and started making a moaning noise. He was pitiful. He stared at Will as if he was the one who gave him the shots. Too funny. I think the worst part about the shots was how he felt afterwards. He felt bad for a good 2 days. After getting home from the doc, he took a long nap and then woke up screaming. It was so out of the ordinary for him to cry that much. Next time I'll give him Tylenol prior to the appointment and hopefully he won't feel as bad afterwards. Crew measured >97% in height, weight and head circumference. Because his head was measuring so large, the doctor recommended we go get an ultrasound just to be sure there was no fluid on his brain. He said that Crew is just a big baby all around, but he wanted to be on the safe side. So my mom went with me to the hospital for Crew's appointment. He did perfectly and slept through the entire thing. He didn't even know it had happened. The ultrasound was completely normal. We've just got a super smart baby!


This was Christmas week. Our little talker went to see Santa on the day of this photo. He was indifferent to the experience. I'm sure next year will prove otherwise though! We loved our Christmas with him so much! It's so different with a baby and I am so grateful for our first Christmas with Crew. As we learned at Thanksgiving, holidays tend to wear out the sweet boy. He fussed a little because he was sleepy, but did so well. We spent a few nights at Will's parents and a few at my parents' over the holiday. My brother-in-law and sis-in-law were in town so that's why we decided to stay on that side of town for the most part. Crew did really good sleeping in different places each night. However, almost every night he ended up in bed with us and slept better than in a crib he wasn't familiar with. I'll take those baby snuggles!

Crew also got to meet his Uncle Micah (Will's younger brother) this week! Micah had spent last semester studying abroad in Germany and was out of the country when Crew was born. He Skyped with Crew at the hospital when he was born. He sure has grown since then though!

He went to work with me for the first time this past week and did great! I'm so thankful I get to bring him with me some. Read more about that here!


Crew is such a little flirt. He loves when girls talk to him. He grins so big every Sunday at church when people come up and talk to him. He's always so happy and we are SO thankful for that.

It seems like he's started recognizing the camera and we can (almost) always get a smile out of him for pictures.

Crew loves when Will does "Super Crew" to him. Will holds him up on his belly as if he's flying through the sky and Crew just looks all around. It's pretty funny.


We love this picture of Crew just chillin' in his chair. He looks so relaxed. We celebrated the New Year this past week. We didn't have big plans. We went to my parents for dinner and then they watched Crew for a few hours while we went to get dessert with another couple. We were at home, in bed before midnight. Will and I did stay awake until the New Year, but went to sleep soon after!

Crew giggled this week for us. It was hilarious. Up until now, he will talk and talk, but we haven't had any belly laughs from him yet. I got tickled at him in the bath and was laughing at him and I think that's why he started laughing - because I was laughing. It was priceless and I wish we could have captured it on video. Even his little shoulders were bouncing up and down!

He has a new favorite thing to do in the bath this week. Since he LOVES kicking his feet, I will put my hands up against the bottom of his feet and he will push up against them and push his little baby tub backwards. It is so funny to watch his fat baby thighs straighten out to push himself backwards. He always grins and talks when this happens!

He is such a blessing!
post signature

Sunday, January 5, 2014

2013 in review

What kind of blogger would I be if I didn't do a year in review post? I didn't plan on doing one until finding the following piece of paper in our 2013 memory jar. This has been the best year of our lives with the birth of Crew. This year brought blessing after blessing and I have loved looking back and reflecting on it.

january
Will and I started a new tradition of a memory jar with writing things on little pieces of paper throughout the year and then reading it the following New Year's Day. I'm so glad we chose to start this when we did!

We spent a lot of time together riding. We haven't done much of this since last January because of being pregnant.


februrary

I shared how we told our families about our big news

We celebrated Will's 25th birthday with dinner at Carrabba's

march
We celebrated 3 years of marriage by announcing our pregnancy on our anniversary

april
We went to our gender ultrasound and gave the secret envelope to Kelly for her to prepare for our party


We had our gender reveal party and found out that we were having a boy!


may
I shared why we chose Crew's name

Will graduated with his Masters from seminary

june
Will got ordained at Faith Baptist


I shared about all I've learned from pregnancy

july
I went to Myrtle Beach with my family....


...while Will went to Kenya, Tanzania and China

august
We had our first baby shower with the couples' group from church

Kelly took our maternity pictures


We were given our second baby shower at our home church


september
Kelly and Roxanna gave us our third baby shower

october
Only the greatest month of our lives...we had our first baby, Crew William Kassner. I shared all about his birth

Kelly took his newborn photos when he was 8 days old.

november
We celebrated Crew's one month birthday

We dedicated Crew to God in front of our church and family


I shared Crew's birth day video

We had our first Thanksgiving with our little turkey

december
Crew turned two months...already

We started cloth diapering full time and love it

I took Crew's picture for our Christmas card

We celebrated my 25th birthday

We had Crew's first Christmas!


Can't you see why this has been the best year...thus far?! I can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for our little family. I'm so excited to watch Crew grow and learn and experience new things. God has truly blessed us!
post signature


LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...