Whoa! I knew it had been a long time, but I didn't realize it had been THIS long! Since the last time was January, it is time for an update, or at least a tidbit.

As I arrive at the anniversary of being home for a year, I'm thinking about how I've kept myself busy. For the first six months I endured the warm summer months mostly at home alone. I loved the warm weather, but didn't run around on the beach, or hike through the woods, or swim in the ocean. I was taking it easy because I was caring for the unborn babe. In fact, the one time I did push the activity level up a notch, my doctor told me to stay off my feet and take it easy. So, according to my neighbor, for the first six months I "sat around inside all day". :)

Then in November the little girl came. Yay! Life changed, and now that we've gotten used to each other, life feels normal. Our first month together was difficult, but happy. In fact, if you're looking for some sympathy when it comes to nursing, I've got your back.

Now that the weather is getting nicer I'm pumped to take Hope outside, and let her interact with friends since she's noticing others a lot more now.

Now it's time for some of my favorites:

**Luke having time off. We're planning a trip to Minneapolis to see Wicked. We missed it when Wicked came to Des Moines, so the next nearest place is Minneapolis in August.

**Jimmy Fallon does a pretty funny parody of LOST on his late night show. He calls it 'LATE'. Check it out!

**My violin. I should practice more than I do, but I think I've made great strides in a few months! I played alongside my brother-in-law the other day as he plaayed his guitar, and I think it sounded pretty good. The violin is such a beautiful instrument, and I hope to play really well someday. Sometimes I have to fight Luke for it--he likes to play it too.

**Here are some of my favorite pictures of Baby Girl.

Today I found my cat sleeping in Hope's room. He was all curled up in the sunlight spilling in through the window. I thought to myself that I hadn't seen him sleep there before...then I remembered that this is the first spring that we've had that door open. After Grace was born we kept that door closed most of the time. We kept it closed during the winter anyway because it was one less room to heat. I said a sincere thank you to God this morning when I saw my cat sleeping in Hope's room. I'm thankful that we have that door open now.

I'm going to try to upload a video so you can see our little girl in action. But I'm going to do it in a separate post.