I can’t imagine how hard it is to be a mom – not just physically, but emotionally and every other way too. It’s been awesome watching my beautiful wife transition to being, not only an amazing wife, but an incredible mom too. And she’s done it seamlessly, as if it’s what she was destined for all along – which I know she was.

I knew from the minute I met Carrie that she would be an amazing mom some day.  She has an enormous heart and has always had a way with connecting with kids like no one else I’ve ever seen. I know she was nervous before Landon was born, but the second she held him for the first time, everything just seemed so natural – and it’s been that way ever since.

They say being a mother is the hardest job there is – I couldn’t agree more. It’s a 24/7/365 gig that never ends. It’s a thankless job, with rarely any down time, you’re sleep deprived, there’s always cooking and cleaning and laundry to do, and on top of it all – the never ending worry and stress that comes with being a mom. And if that’s not enough, the pay sucks and so does the boss. Name one profession that even comes close to competing with that.

All that to say, I love you Carrie. I want you to know that you are an amazing mom – the best there is and ever will be. You’re not only an amazing and gorgeous wife, who takes care of all my needs (quite an accomplishment in its own right), but you’re a beautiful and loving mommy to a very active little boy who adores you. Thank you for all you do for us – we wouldn’t make it 10 seconds without you!

Happy Mother’s Day baby, we love you so much!

- Your Two Studmuffins

In some aspects, it’s hard to believe we’ve been married for 7 years already. In other ways, it seems like there’s never been a time when I haven’t known you and loved you. You are my best friend, my beautiful wife and I cannot imagine my life without you. God blessed me so much when He gave you to me, you’re more than I ever deserved and more than I ever dreamed for and hoped for.

In the Bible, the number 7 typically represents completion and perfection. Over the last 7 years, we’ve grown and we’ve changed, yet our love has remained. Although things have been far from perfect (and by ‘things’ I mainly mean me), I want you to know that my love for you has grown with each passing day.

A “wise man” (a.k.a. your dad) once said, “life isn’t all about sex and pleasure… it’s a lot of hard work”. Even though we’ve laughed about that over the years, he was right. This past year has certainly been difficult. We’ve been forced to drastically change the carefree life we once knew and become responsible parents to the cutest little boy in the world. But through all the sleepless nights and trying days, it’s been amazing to see the incredible mommy I knew you’d always be.

I love you Carrie, so, so much! You are patient, loving, gracious, gentle and kind… more than I could ever hope to be. At the same time, you’re funny, witty, silly and sarcastic… all the qualities needed for survival with me. Thank you for being the best mommy and the best wife in the world. Thank you for 7 wonderful years and here’s hoping for 70 more! I love you baby.

“I Will Be Here” by Steven Curtis Chapman

Tomorrow morning if you wake up
And the sun does not appear
I… I will be here

If in the dark we lose sight of love
Hold my hand and have no fear
‘Cause I… I will be here

I will be here…
When you feel like being quiet
When you need to speak your mind
I will listen
And I will be here
When the laughter turns to crying
Through the winning and losing and trying
We’ll be together
‘Cause I will be here

Tomorrow morning if you wake up
And the future is unclear
I… I will be here

As sure as seasons are made for change
Our lifetimes are made for years
I… I will be here

I will be here…
And you can cry on my shoulder
When the mirror tells us we’re older
I will hold you

And I will be here
To watch you grow in beauty
And tell you all the things you are to me
I will be here

I will be true
To the promise I have made
To you and to the One
Who gave you to me

I… I will be here

And just as sure as seasons are made for change
Our lifetimes are made for years
So I…
I will be here…
We’ll be together

I will be here.

I decided on a whim to re-do Carrie’s website, just for fun. WooThemes (my favorite WordPress template designers) released a new theme this week which got the wheels churning, so this is what I ended up with. It was fun little project and I’m finding the more I dabble in PHP (code speak for my non-techie friends), the more I learn. I’m still horrifically slow and I’m probably doing things the hard way, but the cool part is that I’m starting to figure it out and find what code controls what and so on.

This design features several different plugins, like the header rotator at the top to keep the site looking fresh. It also has a Flickr plugin to automatically load images from our account. I wish I could claim all the artwork, but alas, I don’t gotz da skillz. So all the imagery is ‘tweaked’ or put together from multiple sources to create the look of the site. I also had fun designing the little footer at the bottom to add a few personal elements for Carrie. She doesn’t really use Twitter, so I’ve been trying to find a way to replace that element with her Facebook status updates, but have been unsuccessful. You can do the opposite (post from Twitter to Facebook), so I may just have to convince Carrie to use Twitter, I don’t see that conversation going well, lol. The framework is all WooThemes, but this was probably the most I’ve hacked up a theme before, especially theirs, because they’re nearly perfect out of the box.

I don’t know why I mess around with our blogs so much, neither one of us are heavy bloggers and we don’t have a lot of readers, but I just thought it’d be fun to do and a great learning experience, and it was! Yeah, I know, I need to get a life. Ha. Anyways, head on over to MommyhoodAdventures.com and take a look and leave Carrie some comment love.

Ok, so this was probably one of the most unproductive weekends we’ve had in a very long time. Wanted to start on the deck Saturday, but it wound up raining all weekend, which was fine, because we desperately need the rain around here. Went to Lowe’s Saturday and purchased some more items for the backyard, including solar lighting, 3 Crape Myrtle trees and a back deck light. Can’t wait for things to come together with that whole project, but it’s going to be awhile. Spent the rest of the weekend playing a stupid game on Facebook called “Yoville” – what an incredible waste of time. I just gave up and gave Carrie the money and stuff I earned. There’s much better things I could be doing with my time… like trimming my nose hair or something.

It’ll be a semi-short work week this week – we’re headed to Pennsylvania for Memorial Day to see Carrie’s family. That’ll be fun, and hopefully chunk will enjoy the plane ride. If not, then I don’t feel too bad. I’ve put up with my fair share of screaming children on planes, so it’s payback time! Ha. We’re hoping to time his feeding right so he’ll eat on the plane… but there’s no telling, because really, it’s all a crapshoot when it comes to babies. They’re about as unpredictable as the weather around here.

I’ve been feeling a little “locked into a rythmic pattern” lately, so it’ll be nice for a change of pace and a chance to get out of town for a bit. We haven’t really gone anywhere or done anything since Landon was born, so I’m really looking forward to the time away, even if it’s just for a few days. I’m sure I’ll have some stories to write about when we get back. Nothing ever goes smoothly when we’re flying to Philly or vice versa.

On a different note, trying to think of some creative ideas for this blog. I don’t really know what to write about half the time that’ll be interesting to other people. Used to love to do movie reviews and stuff, but seeing as how I haven’t been to a movie since January, nothing to write about there. Any interesting ideas and suggestions from my loyal fan base? All .009 of you?

Man, I cannot believe it’s already the end of May! Time has absolutely flown by since Landon was born. He’s 3 1/2 months already and growing like a little weed! We nicknamed him “chunk” because he has become quite the little handful. He’s doing great though, sleeping 8-10 hours most nights now, so that’s awesome and we’re extremely thankful to have a good baby.

So you may notice the new blog site… or you may not, lol. I’m not the “blogger” some of my friends are… mainly because I hate talking about myself and find it incredibly difficult to do so. But I’ve designed this one in a way to keep the content fresh, without me necessarily having to login every day to update it! : )

A couple friends of mine turned me on to WordPress a few weeks ago… unless you’re a designer or programmer, you may not realize that WordPress is more than just a blog site (WordPress.com)… it’s a whole lot more. Won’t go into the geeky/tecky details, but I’m finding it a lot of fun to play around with. I just finished Carrie’s blog and will be starting on my sister’s photography site here soon too. It’s been awhile since I’ve messed around with web design and stuff, mainly because I just felt that the whole industry was moving in a direction I just couldn’t keep up with, with my limited knowledge and skillset. Even though WordPress is still a little ahead of me (programming wise), I think I can dink & dabble just enough to find my way around in it. We shall see!

Other than that, my dad has graciously agreed to help me expand our back deck. It’s currently 10×10 and we’ll be adding on to it to make it 18×14 with a pergola as well. That’s going to be my summer project…  along with doing a little landscaping in the front & back yard. I hate yard work, but now that we’re spending so much time at home, it’s time for me to start getting some things done that I’ve been putting off for awhile now. Honestly, it’s all I can do to keep up with the grass though right now, so we’ll see how it goes.

Things at church are going well – we just had our first baby dedication last week, which Landon was a part of. I’m excited to see all the young couples that have been attending lately. Haven’t had a chance to meet them all yet, but it’s encouraging to see our church growing.

My little sister graduated on Saturday from Bob Jones – I’m proud of her, she was a much better student than I ever was! She’s currently interviewing over at Susan G. Komen, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens there. It sounds like a great opportunity and something she’d really enjoy doing. She’s extremely talented, so whatever it is she winds up doing, she’s going to be great at it.

Well, that’s all for now – will try to keep this thing updated a little more frequently, now that I’ve got a new design and everything updated.

- Nathan

Ok, so I can’t wait to be a dad… I keep counting down the days and months in my head. While some guys kind of dread the interruption of their routines, I welcome it with open arms. Not that I don’t enjoy my carefree evenings of just plopping down after work and watching TV or just hanging out with Carrie doing whatever we feel like doing, whenever we feel like doing it – I enjoy all those things very much. But I’m ready for the drastic change that’s about to take place. And yes, I know it’s going to be a drastic change… the rude awakenings at 3 in the morning, the endless stream of poopy diapers, the spit up, the throw up, the smell.

While I’m not at all looking forward to those things, I can’t wait to hold my little guy in my arms for the first time and see the little miracle God’s given us. In a weird way, I think when that happens for the first time, I’ll finally understand God’s love for me as His child, and I can’t wait for that moment either. Maybe some things will just start to click for me like they never have before, I don’t know.

It’s seemed like forever ago since we found out Carrie was pregnant, and I know for Carrie, it feels like she’s been pregnant forever too. I keep thinking ahead to February 2nd and then realize it’s only the end of September. Kinda feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, doing the same thing day after day after day. I know little Landon will be here before we know it, but it sure feels like an eternity away at this point. If you’ve read my Bio, then you know I’m not a patient person… at all, ever. But at the same time, I know if there was ever anything worth waiting for, this is it.

126 days and counting…

Ever had one of these? Thankfully, God’s been very patient and merciful to me and while I have had some wake up calls of the extreme variety, He’s used the simplest of things to get my attention lately, to let me know He’s still there and loves me no matter what.

Tonight we went to see the movie FireProof and it really did open my eyes to some things I need to change in my own life… both in my marriage and in my relationship with Him. As you can see in my About me page, I am by nature a very lazy individual, not going to lie, and I’ve got to fight it with every ounce of my being. When I don’t it’s one of the many “parasites” (referenced in the movie) that grabs hold of everything I hold dear and seeks to tear it apart.

That movie was exactly what I needed to see tonight. It’s made me really stop and think about my commitment to Carrie, what I can be doing to show my love and respect for her. It also renewed my focus for having a deeper and more meaningful relationship with God, not just a casual one.

If you’ve never heard of the movie FireProof, be sure to check it out, you’ll be glad you did. While it is a movie about saving marriage, it’s so much more than that. The guys at Sherwood did an amazing job and it was good to see one of my childhood favorite actors, Kirk Cameron again too.