Happy Thanksgiving!

Our little turkey...

We had a lot to be thankful for this year at Thanksgiving knowing that God had just given us a miracle in the form of a tiny baby boy!! We had such a quiet, relaxing day being with family and friends! We didn't want it any other way because we were able to take in and enjoy all that we were thankful for!

And, we had a chance to go see Miss Lila and get a few more pictures of the "kids" together! It had been a long day and they were not the least bit thrilled at us "mommies" wanting to take their pictures! However, they are both photogenic so we did get some cute pictures!!

Just because...

I found a couple of cute pictures of Jonathan and couldn't resist putting them in "just because"! Enjoy!

Meeting Family

On our way home from our first big trip we decided to stop off on our way home and introduce Jonathan to some family. Our first stop was at Jonny's Aunt Julia and Uncle Earnie. They so graciously made us dinner and desert and made us feel at home! We enjoyed seeing them and letting them see Jonathan for the first time. After seeing them we headed to our next stop which was some really good family friends of ours, the Peterson's. Jonathan was able to meet his 2 "cousins" and, we had a great time catching up with old friends!

Two months old and traveling...

We wanted to wait until Jonathan was old enough to travel to take our first big trip. After all his check-ups we decided to go to North Carolina with my parents to their rental houses and enjoy a little time-a-way. Jonathan did great in the car for 12 hours (we spread it out over 2 days) and we settled in for a couple of weeks!! While there Jonathan experienced some huge milestones!! He rolled over for the first time, started holding his head up all by himself, smiling, laughing, realizing that he has hands, and holding toys with those hands!!! He also started wanting to stand up while we held him! Such a big boy!!

We also got to experience the changing of the leaves and then to our suprise...SNOW!! What a wonderful trip for Jonathan to get to see 2 season changes (fall leaves & winter snow) in one trip!!! We also got to see 3 bears on our property that hung around for several days! And we decided to cut down our Christmas tree and bring it back with us!! Who can pass up live Christmas trees from North Carolina and, might I add, only $25.00!!!

Well, after a couple of weeks we had to start getting ready to home. However, the day we were scheduled to leave much to our amazement we woke up to a white world and our trip was delayed a few hours while we tried to figure out how we were going to get down off of the mountain!!! With lots of prayers and very tense moments we did finally make it down safely!!!

Vote Wepublican!!!

So as you all know we had elections this past year. And, hopefully you all went out to vote as all Americans should!!! Anyways, our family had a trip planned to go to North Carolina and it just so happened that we were scheduled to leave the day of elections (bright planning on our part...LOL)! We decided we would all get up early and go vote before the lines got too long and then leave right after. There was really no way for us to go separately because of the baby so we decided to take Jonathan with us! It was really funny because we found him a cute little onesie that said "Future President" on it and the ladies at the election booth gave him a sticker that said "I Voted" to put on his shirt and we left it on him all day! =)

Swimming for the first time

For as long as I can remember I have always loved water! One of the excercises that you can do throughout your entire pregnancy is swim and that is what I did! It was only natural that Jonathan was going to love water as well(at least that is what I was hoping)! So the first chance I got I took Jonathan swimming! I just prayed that he was not going to scream bloody murder!! Luckly...he's like his mommy...HE LOVED IT!!!

Happy Halloween

We had a wonderful fall season and even though we don't celebrate Halloween we do enjoy passing out candy to trick-or-treaters that come through our neighborhood. We've kind of made it a tradition now where my parents come over and we make dinner and hang out on our front porch passing out candy. We had so much fun this year because we have a little one to dress up now! Yoda, our dog, already had a costume from years past but Jonathan didn't have a costume so we got him a simple little bones onesie. We didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on something that he was only going to wear once. I try to be practical and this way he could wear it a few times before Halloween like to church and what not. =)

We also had a chance to go to our local pumpkin patch and buy a few pumpkins and who couldn't resist the opportunity to get some cute pictures of Jonathan & Yoda?!?!

Jonathan has a girlfriend!

We are so excited to announce the birth of Miss Lila Kate Martin born to dear friends of ours Katy and Clint Martin. I met Katy when I was working at a bridal store a couple of years back and she was looking for her bridal gown! Her mom recognized me from our church (First Baptist Church at the Mall) and she knew that I sang in choir. Katy asked me to sing in her wedding and I was honored!! Ever since then we have been such good friends! We actually started trying to get pregnant around the same time and what we didn't know was that God was planning to bring us closer together. You see, we both experienced miscarriages and really needed comfort and prayers. Not realizing what God had planned...within just a couple of months we were both pregnant again with HEALTHY babies!! Long story short...Jonathan was born September 2, 2008 and not long thereafter Lila Kate was born on October 29, 2008! She was actually the talk of the hospital for a couple of days when she weighed in at 10lbs!! It was declared just minutes after being born that Lila looked just like Clint! However I do see some mommy in her for sure!

It is so much fun to see the "kids" (as we call them) grow up together! We have actually pre-arranged their marriage because we know that they are destined to be together! Plus we really like Clint and Katy and couldn't see better in-laws for Jonathan!! =)

Here is a few pictures of Jonathan and Lila together!

One Month and Dedicated

Our church has a baby dedication about 3-4 times a year and it just so happened that there was one just after Jonathan was born! He was the youngest baby (4 weeks) at that particular dedication and so cute might I add! =) Jonny and I made a promise to pray for Jonathan and bring him up to have a personal relationship with Jesus.

Lord, I pray that he will know you one day and love you more than anything else. I also pray that he will find a godly wife. We are definitely rooting for Miss Lila Kate Martin!!

Jonathan's Nursery

So I wanted to pick a theme for Jonathan that would last him a little while. There are so many theme's to pick from but most of them have to do with sports which I am not a big fan of! Plus I just wanted to be different! After searching around I finally found this puppy dog "spot" pattern that I absolutely fell in love with! We are big dog lovers and thought what better theme than that!

We also thought it would be really neat to use the furniture from my nursery when I was a baby! My parents still had it and so we stripped them down and basically refurbished them! You can't even tell that they are almost 25 years old! Plus, they also kept the crib I used but even more special is that it has been passed down for several years. My two cousins used it, my brother and myself used it, one of my cousins used it for her 2 children, a good family friend used it and now here we are using it for Jonathan! I am a sentimental person so it means a lot to me to be able to share my legacy with Jonathan!

So anyways, here are a few pics of the nursery! Enjoy!

Jonathan Michael Pike II

Jonathan Michael Pike II was born on September 2, 2008 and has turned our lives upside-down! I cannot believe that something so small can make such a huge difference in our lives!!! He weighed in at 7lbs 6 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long! It was definitely love at first sight!

For 3 hours of his life everything was blissful but then we started noticing a change in his disposition. He began to show signs of distress and we started to get very worried. After several tests the doctors determined that Jonathan was having a hard time transitioning into this world and that he needed some extra help. So they wisked him off to the NICU and left us in shock over everything!

After a couple hours our doctor came and explained everything to us and helped us understand what all was going on and re-assured us that Jonathan was going to be alright. He needed a couple of days of oxygen and a feeding tube just in case he wasn't able to get all the nourishment he needed.

However, long story short...Jonathan was only in NICU a total of 3 days and was able to come home with mommy & daddy!! Our God is GREAT!!!