4 months young!

I cannot believe Bryson has been with us for 4 months. People always say "you just don't remember life without them" and I never understood that until now. I can't hardly remember back and remember life without our sweet boy.

The doctor said he is right on track and is growing well! He is going to be one tall boy (even the dr walked in and said "is he really only 4 months old?? he is so long!").

The past month Bryson was dedicated at church. A lot of people asked me what that truly means and to us and our church it means we are stating that we are giving Bryson to God and we are going to live our lives and raise Bryson to know and love God. We are going to teach him about Christ and His sacrifice on the cross to take our sins away. We pray that Bryson grows up to have his own, not ours, passion for Christ and serving Him.

Bryson's personality is shining through more and more. I think he is going to be a very sensitive, compassionate little boy based on what we see now. He loves to talk and play and his laughter fills our house. While this holiday season is our first with him, he obviously doesn't quite get the excitement yet. Next year will be a different story with a walking, talking little boy :)

For now we just enjoy our special time with him as a little guy and we are thankful we are able to see him grown up each day! He is just perfect and some days I canNOT believe God blessed me to be his mommy.

Some pics of 4 months :)

Christmas Letter

2012- what a year! One of the best years to date! Didn't think we could top 2008 with our beautiful wedding but 2012 brought our first baby boy and it has rocked our world in the absolute best way possible. You can read our first post which is our birth story for all of those details!


Jeremiah is still working at Palm Valley Church and is now the Student Ministries Pastor over all middle school and high school areas. He has the most amazing people who he works with and we are so blessed to now have a middle school and high school coordinator so that we can take each ministry to the next level. We absolutely love our church and couldn't imagine how God would bless our lives when we started there almost 7 years ago! Jeremiah was a football official again this year and loves having an outside ministry to be able to encourage people in the community and make a little extra money. Jeremiah is loving being a dad and has fallen into the role so naturally!

Amber finished out the 2011/12 school year at Country Place in May and said goodbye to that chapter in her life. We trust that God will continue to guide us as we make one full time income work financially. She spent the summer anxiously awaiting for her precious son and after a 31 hour labor Bryson entered the world. Starting mommy-hood was a wild ride and while each day brought new challenges and joys, it is the role she feels so meant to fulfill. Amber teaches part time music theory for middle school and high school choir students at the Phoenix Children's Chorus. She loves working for the choir that she spent 10 years of her childhood participating in.

Bryson is now 4 months old and is growing each day. He is learning to do things more independently and his personality is beginning to develop and come out. His laugh and smile bring so much joy to our hearts and we can't wait to see what the next year will hold for him! so many new milestones to come!

We pray that all of you are having a special holiday season. Thank you for being a great support to our new growing family and we wish you and your family a fabulous New Year!

 
 

 
 

 

~Jeremiah, Amber and Bryson~

One year ago...

So one year ago today I told Jeremiah we were going to have a baby!! I keep a private blog and my best friend encouraged me to start this when we first began trying to have a baby. So glad I did because I can now look back at these posts and smile. Here is the blog I wrote on the day I found out I was pregnant with sweet Bryson and then the post I wrote about how I told Jeremiah he would be a daddy.

So much has happened in one year and we are so blessed.



November 30, 2011:

So that faint test that I thought I had a few days ago was NOT so faint this morning (after waiting a few days). I don't even know what to do or say. Jeremiah is out of town and I just sat in my bathroom balling this morning all alone! I don't want to tell him over the phone and I'm having 8 small group girls come over for a sleepover tonight!! So many emotions! I called my best friend in the whole world this morning before my classes began and just cried with her! I am excited to get together a fun way to tell Jeremiah but all I want to do when he calls is burst out with the news!!!

God is so faithful and good! I am in such awe of this gift he is growing inside of me!!!!

I cannot wait to tell our family and friends (in a few weeks) and cannot wait to meet this baby come August.

God,

You are so amazing. I sit in awe of the miracle of life and that you have blessed me with this gift. I don't know what the next 9 months will hold but I do know that I ask you to speak life into this baby. I ask you to remove the millions of fears that are inside of me and just let me enjoy this time. Lord, keep my relationship with you strong. This baby is not mine but yours and I want to be the best mom I can be and that means that I have to foremost make my relationship with you the strongest. Give Jeremiah encouragement and wisdom to be a great dad. Helps our parents to know how to best support us and our friends how to best encourage us. Help me as I tell my friends who are struggling to start their family and help me to be sensitive to those situations during these next 9 months. Lord most of all give me a joy that is outstanding for you. Help me to show your light at school as this might be my last year here. You are the most amazing thing in my life Lord and I want to keep you in my thoughts everyday all day!

in Christ's name, Amen

Baby

YOU ARE IN THERE!! I can't feel you but I can feel something stirring inside of me. I pray that in 9 months I can meet you. I pray that you are healthy and perfect. I pray that as you grow up you will know the love that God has for you and how blessed I am to be your mommy. I love you with all of me!

Love,

Mommy

December 2nd, 2011

I was SO excited to tell Jeremiah about our news! Lauren was the only one who knew because I just simply had to tell someone who could scream and cry with me and keep me calm for 2 DAYS until Jeremiah got home.

I had 8 girls over for a sleepover which meant little sleep but it was perfect because it gave me time to think of a cute way to reveal the news to him!

So he came home shortly after the last girl left I took a mini stocking and placed it between our 2 big stockings. Inside that mini stocking I put the 2 positive pregnancy tests. I also had a song queued up that was a song we joked about playing when we became pregnant. It is Glee's "you're having my baby". So he came home and was exhausted from his work trip that caused him not to sleep for almost 30 hours... I told him to sit on the couch and I would bring him a drink (the stocking is right across from the couch)... so he sat down and... nothing... haha. He walked by the stocking to get out of his regular clothes and put on comfy clothes and... nothing... So behind our stocking is our lit up shelf of our Christmas village houses so I asked if he would turn off the Christmas house lights on the shelf (where he almost had to hit his head on the mini stocking and.... nothing! I'm not wanting to make this abrupt but I couldn't hold it in any longer. So I told him that one of the girls in my small group bought us a present and it was in the mini stocking hanging from the shelf. He said "awesome." and continued to relax on the couch.. (I almost flipped! haha) then all of a sudden he stood up and looked at me and walked closer to the stocking and said "NO WAY...???!! Are you serious!?! Omg I'm so excited!" So we hugged and cried and screamed for a few minutes and then I said "ok I have 1 more thing" and I went to turn on the song and I realized that when I told him to turn off the light switch that he turned off the power strip that my computer was plugged into and it shut down my computer! haha. It was the perfect disaster of a reveal but it was just so amazing.

It is still VERY unbelievable to us and I can feel changes but Jeremiah can't and I know that will be hard for him but he is So excited for us! No hesitations and pure excitement and what an amazing position to be in! We will be telling our family on Saturday and we are so excited!!

We bought ornaments that say "Grandma, Grandmpa, aunt, uncle" for each of our immediate family members with "Love, Baby Hann" on the ornament. We have scheduled times with all of them and we already had plans that would make this not look suspicious... I can't even wait!! It's concert week for me which is high stress so I need to relax this week and then when I can finally share the news with someone I will be able to calm a bit :)

I am constantly in thought about everything and have to give up control. I hope this is what God works through me these next several months. I can do my part by keeping myself healthy and stress less but ultimately God will keep my baby safe and healthy or prepare me for what he has different.

Some pics from our first realization of our baby :)

3 months old!?

Time is flying by... people told/tell me how much I will miss newborn baby phase and I have to tell you, although it was a special time- I LOVE the new phases that are coming. 3 month mark is my favorite so far. Bryson's little personality is developing and his smile penetrates our hearts each day.

My favorite... going in every morning when he starts to talk to himself and him seeing my face or daddy's face and getting the biggest smile in the world. I just love it... LOVE IT.

Our schedule is pretty solid and his routine is pretty predictable which is really nice to enter back into the adult world :) I love meeting with other mommy friends and sharing our ups and downs of new mommy-hood and not feeling alone on this crazy ride of parenthood.

I love seeing Bryson's face when Jeremiah comes home and he goes from this look of "who is that..." and then the second he sees him his smile grows. I also love when Jeremiah calls in the middle of the day to say hi and I put him on speaker and Bryson stops what he is doing and looks around to find him.

NOTHING could have prepared me for being a mommy and to be honest it is the greatest thing ever. I thought I would have a hard time not working full time (as I thrive on many things going on in my life in a million areas- now I have a million things going on in one area haha) but I have such a peace being at home and seeing my baby grow. I know that not everyone has that choice (and believe me- we are sacrificing and trusting God a lot by living off of virtually one income- people always say we are 'lucky' and I correct them saying it is a huge sacrifice and test of self-discipline financially to be living this way and I wouldn't change it for any amount of money).

This month Bryson is:

- starting to laugh (love baby laughs)
- starting to grasp objects better
- sleeping consistently 9 hours a night
- still loves being swaddled
- loves looking at himself in a mirror (he now plays a little game when he sees himself and buries his head down to hide from himself)
- continuing to develop those LOUD vocal cords
- is doing well with other people holding him
- eats like a pro and finishes a feeding in a record 8 minutes! (sounds crazy but believe me- it's true)

Here are some pictures of our little stud beginning his 3rd month!

 
 
 
 

First Road trip

Well this past week Bryson went on his first road trip to see his great grandma is Prescott. We so badly wanted to get up to see Jeremiah's grandma as she had not met Bryson yet but we only have one car and that car is running off of Jesus right now :) So Jeremiah's dad graciously offered to drive us up there!

The weather was beautiful and we made sure Bryson was nice and bundled and looking snazzy for grandma. Grandma Carole knew that Tod was coming up but she was told he was bringing her "birthday surprise." (her birthday was the week before) So we pull into her driveway and we planned on some cute way of surprising her but the second she saw the car she opened the door and then she saw Jeremiah and I which meant Bryson was there also. Instantly her eyes filled up with tears as she was overjoyed to see her first and only great grand son. It was such a special moment and in her words "the best birthday gift ever" <3

We spent the day very mellow, chatting and of course when I wasn't feeding or changing Bryson, grandma was hold him. She put him to sleep several times, he laughed and smiled at her and it was a very special, perfect first road trip.

Here are some pictures from our fun day!