"Sacred"

I've always really liked the group Caedmon's Call. For Christmas I was given their latest CD, but only recently have taken the time to listen to it. One of the songs, "Sacred," really jumped out to me, as it talks about the life of a stay at home mom. I think it is so easy to get caught up in the day to day routine of being at home...diapers, grocery shopping, cooking, nursing, baths, naptimes, cranky babies...that it becomes easy to forget just how precious each moment is. This song has reminded me that each day I get to spend with Sadie Beth and hopefully at least a few more little ones is indeed sacred. I LOVE my job...really I wouldn't change anything. I am so blessed.

Below are the lyrics to the song with some images from our days that come to my mind when I hear it. I hope these words are as much of a blessing to my blog-reading-mommy-friends as they have been to me!

this house is a good mess

it’s the proof of life

no way would I trade jobs

but it don’t pay overtimeI’ll get to the laundry

I don’t know when

I’m saying a prayer tonight

cause tomorrow it starts again

could it be that everything is sacred?

and all this time

everything I’ve dreamed of

has been right before my eyes

the children are sleeping

but they’re running through my mind

the sun makes them happy

and the music makes them unwind

my cup runneth over

and I worry about the stain

teach me to run to You

like they run to me for every little thing

when I forget to drink from You

I can feel the banks harden

Lord, make me like a stream

to feed the garden

wake up, little sleeper

the Lord, God Almighty

made your Mama keeper

so rise and shine

rise and shine cause

everything is sacred

and all this time

everything I’ve dreamed of

has been right before my eyes

In other news, the Balzer world has changed in the last 48 hours.....Sadie Beth has gone from being pretty immobile to sitting up and CRAWLING!!! We were kindof wondering if she would ever crawl, but watch out because here she comes!

A Tribute to our favorite Daddy....

(I've been working on this post for awhile now....unfortunately it's a bit late due to having a VERY sick baby...better late than never I suppose...)

Happy Father's Day to my most wonderful husband! I am so incredibly blessed beyond what I could ever dream to be married to such a loving, caring, giving man. David is an amazing husband to me and daddy to Sadie Beth. He works so hard every day at Humana to provide for us and then he comes home and jumps right in with hardly any sort of break to help with Sadie Beth or whatever else is going on. He just gives and gives and gives, and I love him so much that sometimes I really think I'm just going to burst.

I love watching David with Sadie Beth...I may be her #1 (probably because I've got the milk!), but she definitely thinks her Daddy is the COOLEST person in the whole world. She has a blast when they spend time together. She wants to do everything that Daddy does...it's pretty funny.

And now a little bit of a picture show of my sweet baby and her big strong handsome daddy...

It was love at first sight for David and Sadie Beth....she was a great birthday present for him!

The Balzer family of 3 for the first time!

Sadie Beth loved hearing David sing from the very beginning. Aren't they just 2 peas in a pod?

David got to give Sadie Beth her first bottle! He was a pro from the beginning.
She has always been very interested in whatever David is doing.
I think they were watching football. :) And I don't think either of us ever get tired of doing this...

Oftentimes on Saturday mornings, I will go back to sleep and David will take care of Sadie Beth after I nurse. They always have lots of fun doing exciting things like flying.......and making faces at each other!
One Sunday after church...

Sadie Beth has been a bit of a finicky eater when it comes to solid foods. She likes most of the foods we offer her, but the problem is more that she isn't necessarily often in the mood to eat. This was actually getting a whole lot better before she got sick. One funny thing is that often times she would refuse to eat for me until would David come in and eat a snack in front of her...then she would eat no problem! I try this trick and get no response...whatsoever. I guess Daddy has the magic touch.

Honey-bunny, I love you!!! Thanks for being a great husband for me and Daddy for Sadie Beth. We are so blessed by you each day.

This is what I want to do this weekend....

Hopefully for us, the weather will cooperate. I will do a bigger post with pictures of our visit with Grandma Balzer soon, but today I wanted to highlight my new favorite thing to do with Sadie Beth...

First, we had to get ready....

And it took a few minutes to get the hang of it...

She had to decide how she feels about the whole situation...

...and it's a winner!!!!!!!

This is the life!

"I could do this all day," says Sadie Beth...(and Mommy).

Daddy got to come the second time around!

Mommy could do this all day long!
Time to get dressed and go home for a nap!
But before naptime...we figured out that Sadie Beth (Calvin) likes her rocking horse!
Warm weather and sunshine wishes for everyone!

Our Little Calvin...

Sadie Beth had her name long before she was born...I have known for years that I wanted a little girl named Sadie Beth so I was delighted when our first little one was a girl! However, lately we've been wondering if we should start calling her Calvin from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. David and I both love that cartoon, and David has most of the collection.

Sadie Beth has always had lots of fun facial expressions, but lately a lot of them have reminded us of Calvin - very intense and EXTREMELY animated. So here are a few pictures of her "Calvin face."

And this one is by far the best!
So that's a few of the many faces of our Sadie Beth. We are having a great week with Grandma Balzer visiting. We've had lots of fun, gone swimming a couple of times, eaten lots of yummy food and worn little Sadie Beth out. More pictures to comes soon!

Almost 8 1/2 months!

Time goes by so quickly, doesn't it? Just yesterday it seems like Sadie Beth was teeny tiny and spent all day sleeping and nursing...but watch out world, here she comes! Unfortunately, her only means of coming or going anywhere right now is by rolling around but I think she'll figure out the whole crawling thing sooner or later. We've been having tons of fun and I love to see my sweet bug smiling, so here are more pictures of that than I'm sure you care to see. (NOTE: You might wonder why I include so many pictures of the same thing...our family that lives out of town loves it...so that's why.)

I love watching Sadie Beth play...she does so in a very focused way a lot of the times. You can tell she is concentrating very hard on what she is doing. She is holding "bunny-bear." It is the Starbucks "bearista" bear and she loves him very much.

So sleepy....she had just figured out that she could sleep on her stomach around the time this picture was taken. She did for 2 or 3 days and great sleep was had by all in the Balzer family. What happened to my good little sleeper? Oh yeah, teeth.
VERY tired Sadie Beth...
Doesn't she look so big in the chair now?
Daddy and Sadie Beth have lots of fun together!
Turning over the toy basket opened up a whole new world...though I think we need to be thinking about getting some "big kid" toys. I guess you can only be entertained by rattles for so long. She has a few things that she still likes and we gave her some plastic cups yesterday...which she thought were pretty neat. I've been yard saling and got some great books and clothes...now I just need toys.
EVERYTHING goes into the mouth...keys, paper, phone books, table legs, breastpump tubing, your feet if you aren't paying attention...and that was just today.
We continue to read this book like it is going out of style...Sadie Beth LOVES turning the pages of any book.

She stayed like this for a very long time...
It was really funny...so I took multiple pictures...surprised?
Bath time!
One day Sadie Beth decided this was fun, and she did it all day long. Since that day, she hasn't done it again.
She's pretty excited about becoming more mobile. Still no crawling, but she is a pro-roller! Who needs to crawl, I guess?
I never ever get tired of seeing her smile.


Sadie Beth hasn't been the cuddliest of babies, but she is definitely becoming more so...and I LOVE it!

She isn't pulling up...I put her like this, and she stayed.

The End!