The latest happenings

Since we've moved into our new place, here is a quick rundown of what has been happening: Trying to get our TV and internet problems ironed out...apparently the cable company is upgrading the lines in the area which means we get internet for about 2 or 3 hours a day -- frustrating! We are putting the finishing touches on the apartment, where all our stuff goes, how everything is organized, etc...Gina rearranged the living room the other day while I was at work. She did tons of work and it looks great! It is feeling so comfortable and we are LOVING having a room for Atalie. We are working on getting her to surrender the paci. She is doing such a good job - it's day 3 of going cold-turkey and she was MAD at first, but she has really gotten the hang of going down for naps and bedtime without it...we are so relieved! Now when she is asleep she stays that way, instead of waking up every 10 minutes and crying inconsolably when the paci falls out.

Let's see...what else is new...

Another ice storm blew through the area this week, but it affected the Tulsa, OK area much more than over by us. There was only one morning when we woke up to icicles covering everything. It was beautiful and we didn't even lose power like everyone was afraid of. Nice! We have our Christmas tree up, finally! I have been slacking :) I wonder how long it will take for me to want to take it down... ugh.

Gina bought me a griddle for my birthday (not selfishly, I actually wanted one). When I was a cook at Kirby's cafe in Oklahoma, I actually enjoyed cooking stuff up, but all my experience was on the flat-top grill. Pans have always scared me! So I told her a while ago that I might actually want to cook if I had something that resembled what I was used to. I was so excited to get it! Lately I have been cooking fun breakfast stuff - eggs, pancakes, bacon... and yesterday I experimented with making a philly cheesesteak. I think it went well, haha.

So anyway, Atalie has been doing tons of cute stuff lately so we made a little compilation video for anyone who's interested. Hope you like it!

We moved!

Goodbye old apartment, we moved across town into a sparkly new (to us) 2 bedroom place. We are sad to leave the old place, but when push comes to shove we kind of outgrew it, what with the baby and all. The greatest thing about the new place is that it's all on ONE LEVEL! It is SO nice not to have to have twice the baby equipment (one set for the upstairs bedroom, one set for the downstairs living room). It's also nice to not have to climb a flight of stairs when we forget a burp cloth. We will post pictures soon, we are really close to having everything unpacked and in the right spot -- Gina has already done TONS of work on the place to make it feel like home. We just need a few more finishing touches...like a Christmas tree.

We had an excellent Thanksgiving! It was my first time to cook everything, and it turned out great. I didn't burn down the apartment, or even come close! :) Of course, it helps that my friend, Tammi came. She is an awesome cook, and made easy work of everything. We celebrated on Wednesday, since Ben had to work all day on Thursday, but it was still wonderful and felt like it was on the right day. Atalie enjoyed everything, she sat in her bouncy seat by the table and loved watching all the candles.
Ben's birthday was great, too. He, once again, was at work all day, but I made him a nice birthday breakfast, and a nice supper when he got home. He got some nice snuggle time with Atalie too, as you can see. :)

At the park

Okay, so we have the prettiest parks here! We're so lucky!!

Her first laugh!

She has been all smiles lately, we think she might have laughed last night but she got hiccups right afterward, so it may have just been a smiley hiccup. This time was definitely a little chuckle!

Atalie's morning smiles

Sleeping on a cloud

We snapped this picture this morning (she doesn't usually sleep on her tummy, don't worry!) :)

YAY POOP!

No pictures will be posted in this post for obvious reasons... haha. The pediatrician wanted me to call her on Tuesday to update her on Code Brown. When I called she told me that if she pooped within a week of the last one, we wouldn't worry about it, but if not we would have too look into what could be wrong. Well it's only been four days! Thanks so much for praying! Haha, Atalie will kill me when she's older if she finds out what kind of things I posted about.

Looking back I realized that we never posted much about when Atalie was born. Let's face it, I love to talk about it and HAHA you can't stop me! So here goes! :)
Well, I had to be induced, so they scheduled us to go in at 6am and that was fine by me. I wasn't going to be sleeping much that night anyway. We packed up and were ready to go, so we called the hospital to make sure that they were ready and they told us that they had scheduled that we go in at 7. Great, an hour of twiddiling our thumbs and me asking Ben, "Are you sure I'm going to be able to do it??", "Will the IV hurt", "How long do you think it will take?" You know that part in the wedding vows that says "In sickness and in health"? Well there's my sickness (should I say one of my sicknesses...haha). I've got a knack for asking super retarded questions that Ben has no idea what the answer is.
Finally it was time to go, so we left the apartment and drove to the hospital. I was so nervous that I was super chatty with all of the nurses. Ben was too sweet and didn't even tease me about it! We got to the room and I got in my stunning hospital gown and the ride began. One of our friends told us that was like the up-hill start of a roller coaster - with every click you're more nervous and all of the sudden you're on the wildest ride of your life (too true, Nate). I got all "plugged in" to the IV and all that good stuff and then we waited, and waited. After I got my epidural (I know, I'm a wimp)I was pretty comfortable and watched "A Baby Story" for hours. (once again, poor Ben) Atalie was born at 7:56pm, after just about 12 hours of labor only 15 minutes of pushing.

God did so many amazing things that day. Of course, He gave us a beautiful, healthy baby girl, but just as He always does, he went over and above what we hoped for. My mom had bought plane tickets to come up after my due date so that she could be sure to be here to help with the baby, and not use up her limited time while I was just waiting to have her. It turned out that they scheduled me to be induced on the day that she reserved her tickets for! She ended up arriving at the hospital an hour before I delivered! Labor and Delivery was so busy that day that they were having to turn away women who were scheduled to be induced later on that day, so the nurses told me that I would probably have to share a room with another woman at least that night. :( But God was so amazing to us and blessed us, not only with a private room, but one with two beds so that Ben could stay there with me and sleep comfortably. The whole experience was amazing, and I'm looking forward to the next time! :)

I don't want to talk about the hair...







I had to post this one, she was SO tiny!! Wow, I didn't realize how much she's grown now. I know it's good, but it makes me a little sad! She's cuter every day though, so that makes up for it. ;)


Again, hate the picture of me, but she's so little and sweet! :) haha.

God has blessed us with such a good baby. She's such a little sweetheart, very easy going - just like her daddy. :) She's been doing just great, she's on a 3hr feeding schedule and growing like a weed. We had our 2 month doctor's visit this week and she's already 11 pounds (chubby, just like her momma!! haha). The only issues she's having is she spits up quite a bit, and rarely poops. I honestly never thought I'd talk so much about poop, but once you've got a little one you've got to pay attention to everything. She only poos just about every 12 days! I talked to our pediatrician about it and she told me to start feeding her an ounce or two of Apple/Pear juice and see if that helps. I'm supposed to call her by this Thursday, and if she hasn't "regulated" it might be something more serious. So, it sounds strange, but please pray for poop!! :) Other than that she's just amazingly perfect. She's doing so well at sleeping through the night, she usually sleeps about 5-6.5 hours, then eats, then sleeps another three! We're very lucky, I know.
Since April Ben has been an intern at our church. It's been such an awesome experience. It's been really challenging for him, but with each new task that he feels completely wrong for God has really equipped him. It's been so neat to see. On Monday he went with the other leaders in the church to the Missouri Baptist Convention. He said that the convention was interesting, but more than that he really enjoyed spending time getting to know other leaders. He came home really challenged, but encouraged.
We spent Halloween at my brother's place and, of course, had a blast. Atalie was a bunny and their puppies were a cop and a prisoner, they were too cute. We pretty much just stayed inside, watched a movie and made ourselves sick off of the candy. There weren't that many trick-or-treaters... it had to go somewhere!
We're actually going to be moving soon! To Colorado!! haha, just kidding, but we are moving, just to a new apartment though. We're in a one bedroom townhouse now, and we found a really nice 2 bedroom condo that would end up being just about the same amount of rent that we're paying now. It's just one story, which will be nice once Atalie starts getting around, and it's 1200sq feet! We, of course, would love to buy a house, but we don't have hardly anything for a down payment and it would be nice for Ben to have a job where the money is a bit more stable. We're pretty excited about the condo though.
Well, that's pretty much it, as far as I can remember. I'll try to do a bit better about actually writing something. :)

Ninja Parade

Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

One Semester of Spanish - Love Song

Atalie got a great new present in the mail today - the Bumbo seat from gramma & grandpa Brendle! She is only 7 weeks old but this thing helps her to sit up perfectly! We LOVE IT! And so does she - sitting up has always been comfortable for her but it is very hard to support her, she just doesn't have the muscles to keep herself upright yet. This does the trick! We didn't get it in the picture but she smiled right away when we put her in. She still needs a little extra help but it won't be long. Thank you gramma & grandpa!

Atalie first smiled on the 8th, and since then she's been smiling like crazy! :) Morning is her favorite time (she loves it when I sing "Morning's Here" to her... haha). This morning we decided to try on her new hat that we got for her the other day. It's a little too big, but it's still pretty darn cute.

Ben decided to play around a bit
with some pictures we had. I
know, I know... no one needs to
send me the TLC Life Lesson
figurine of "Not everyone wants
to see your baby pictures" :)

Parallel Parking

Might as well be me... haha

Check this out. My mom e-mailed this ebay auction to me and the story was just too funny not to share.

A Day at the Park

Atalie enjoyed her first trip to the park, but she did get cranky with us fussing with her to get 8 billion pictures. :)

We've been doing great lately. We're tired, but that seems to be par for the course. She's such a good baby. We went to her two week checkup a week ago and she's already 8 pounds 3 ounces! Everything seems to be going really well.

Ben's schedule at work has been slow lately, just because it isn't really tourist season right now in Branson. It's been a bit hard since we're shorter on money now, but it's really nice to know that he has time to get the rest that he needs and he's been able to do all of his obligations with the intership at the church. This week he's going to start descipling two high school guys, which will be awesome! He's really got a heart for teaching the Word and this will be a great way to ease into teaching without having it be a large group of people. We're really excited to see what God has in store for us with our church, but please keep Ben in your prayers since wearing all of these hats can be quite exhausting.

We were very lucky to have Gina's mom come up and help us with Atalie's first two weeks of life. It was so nice to be able to call on her experience and extra set of hands! She also brought an afghan and two quilts that she has been painstakingly stitching ever since we found out we were pregnant. They are absolutely gorgeous, and it is impossible to see all the details from only a picture. Atalie is already so spoiled!! :) We are so sad that the time has already come and gone, but it was a real blessing and special time together.

almost 2 weeks old

Atalie is doing so well! She is a very happy baby, and only sometimes keeps us up at night. Tomorrow will make two weeks that she has been with us, and it has been flying by. Hopefully she won't grow up too fast!

Busy days

Since we've been home there has just been a buzz of activity! We are getting settled back in after the delivery of our wonderful little bundle, and it seems like there's always something that needs to get done! After the first couple of nights, we have settled into somewhat of a routine, but every minute there is a new challenge and surprise, with having a new baby around. Gina has been doing supremely well taking care of Atalie, she is such a good mom! I hope I've been able to help too but she is doing such good work! The hardest thing for everyone I think has been adjusting to our new sleep schedule. Night-time is sometimes just as active as daytime! We have been snapping so many pictures so there is always bound to be something new in our photo album if you want to see how she's doing day to day. We have just had so much fun getting to know our little girl and we are falling in love with her more all the time.

New Baby Pictures

Check out our photo album for pictures of Atalie! Thank you all so much for all your awesome comments :)

-Ben

Atalie Mariah Brendle

It's a girl! Born on 8.29.07 at 7:56 PM
7 lbs. 4.2 oz. and 20" long

Headed to the Hospital

Made ya look!

So today's the big due date, but no activity so far. It was such a beautiful day, too! Overcast and cool with just a bit of rain. Oh well, I guess she's just not ready, or perhaps she just wants to be fashionably late??

The Born Ultimatum

Today was the doctors visit. Two centimeters and 70% effaced. To quote the doctor, "Well, your body's going to need to do a lot of work to get this baby out by the due date..." So she decided to schedule my induction. If the baby doesn't come by the due date, we have her birthday picked out for her: August 29th.
We were fully aware that we're having a baby, but realizing that we will be parents in one week or less is exciting and unreal.

We are three days to the due date! Any second now Gina & I could go from relaxing in the house, to rushing off to the hospital - and the craziest adventure of our lives yet. These days are going by extra slowly, all we can do is watch the clock until something happens... no point in making a lot of elaborate plans!

Well, not much is new. I've gone to the doctor twice since I posted last; the first visit everything was pretty much the same, then at my appointment today she told me that I'm almost 2cm and 60% effaced. A little progress, but not much. She suggested that I start drinking raspberry tea to help me not have to be induced (much more appetizing than castor oil... which many people strongly recommend against). I picked some up at Wal-Mart and when I got home looked it up online. I haven't found anything that says that it helps bring on labor, but there seems to be some that suggest that it might help shorten labor and make your contractions more effective. I'll take whatever help I can get! :) We also went to the mall to walk around for a few hours. It's way to hot to be walking outside. Hopefully something will help me progress a little bit faster!!
I couldn't just walk around the mall without at least stopping in some of the stores, and while I was in Kirkland's I found a really cute lamp for in my kitchen! I was wanting something to be a soft light for under the cabinets so that it's light at night without always having to use the blinding overhead light. I really like what I found, and it was only 8 bucks!!

Haven't posted a picture in a while, this is me at 37 1/2 weeks :)

We've been busy since my last post. Last weekend was the event that Ben had been planning for weeks. Our church took over the "children's center" at a local event at the park. We had two bounce houses and a few other games, plus several different crafts for the kids to do. Ben still had to work those days so we went over on Friday morning nice 'n' early and set up the tent and all of the supplies, then did our best to get the volunteers organized and feeling like they knew what was going on, then he had to go to work. We've been needing to take a childbirth class and our last option of one to take was that Saturday, so Ben had to ask off work for that and had to set up the volunteers like the day before. It was really a challenge to try to plan something that you aren't going to be able to be there for! :) He did a great job though... as always. All of the feedback we got from the volunteers was positive, so that feels good. The childbirth class was from 8:30 in the morning till 5:00 in the evening... talk about information overload. It actually wasn't all that bad, we knew quite a bit of the stuff but it was nice to be able to ask the questions that we've had and to find out more of the specifics of this particular hospital. They also ran us through breathing/relaxation techniques, which I'm sure will come in handy. I of course had trouble not giggling through that. Go figure. That class really made it real though, not just because of the video, complete with full view of a baby crowning... oh joy, but practicing breathing, touring labor and delivery, and seeing the type of room we'll be in after she's born. I can't believe we'll be there in around 20 days! (are you in there little fetus, in 20 days will you come greet us?? haha, just for you Lisa!! love you!) Wednesday was my Dr.'s appointment. This kicks off my weekly visits. The doctor talked with us about how to know when to come in to the hospital and all that good stuff, then she checked me and I'm 1 1/2 cm dilated at 50% effaced. Could be more, but I'm glad I'm at least progressing. We'll see what happens this Wednesday, I think that will give us more of an idea how it's going.


Our anniversary is this Monday! I can't believe it's been two years! It's so weird, these two years have flown by, but at the same time it feels like we've been together forever. Everyone tells you that you'll only feel closer to each other over the years, and you think... "oh that's just a nice thing they're telling me... I couldn't love him more than this!" but it's true. All of the experiences you go through, both good and bad, just tie you together even tighter. I feel so corny but I hate doing anything without him. It's torture to have to do something away from him when it's his time off from work! I can't believe what a wonderful husband God gave me. Ben, if you read this... I love our life together, and I'm so excited to see where we are next year! I love you so much, Happy Anniversary! Oh, and your dinner is in the freezer, don't wake me up when you get home. Hahahah! I'm totally kidding... :)

Saturday I went with our church small group to Bodies the Exhibition. I know, I know... real people?? eeu! But it was actually really interesting! I'll confess, when I saw an arm peeled down to the muscle I got a bit queasy, but everything was really tastefully done. After a while... you get used to it, I guess. It was so fascinating to see all of the tiny details of every part of your body. Amazing to see how every little thing works together perfectly, it really reminded all of us of just how awesome our Creator is. They had a "fetal room" (scary sounding...) that was really neat to go through. It started off with a 4 week old fetus and by 8 weeks it was just so cool to see it's little fingers and toes even though it was so tiny. Definitely made me really excited to see our little baby, and her tiny fingers and toes. :)

We had such a fun weekend! On Saturday morning we took pictures for a family that we met while working on our church's food drive. While we were at the donation center they noticed that Ben had a nice camera, and told us that they were having a small family reunion that they wanted to have photographed. They asked if we would, and we said yes! They were such a sweet family, and the pictures turned out awesome. Ben really has a gift for taking pictures, and I got to be his assistant (Vanna White style of course). Then on Sunday our church held a baby shower for us! I was a bit nervous going into it because I knew that I would pretty much be the center of attention, but it went so much better than I thought. I had such a good time. I never dreamt that I would have so many sweet friends that would throw a shower for me, especially after only being in the church for just under a year. Ben and I are just overwhelmed by how generous everyone was, our baby girl is definetly already spoiled rotten. :) It's so neat to get to know all of the other families in the church going through just what we're going through becoming parents. I've gotten close to many of the ladies through our pregnancies and now we're all going through the same awe and anticipation. It's nice to be going through this with so many other first time moms, we can all help each other through this! We all come from different backgrounds but now we definitely have some common ground!

dad's thoughts

Where have the last 50 days gone...

It seemed like just yesterday that we were excited for our little baby countdown to pass into double digits. Forget 100 days left, which felt like yesterday by the way. 50 days left and I hope I'm ready. Life is going to be so different so soon, and I know it's coming but it still just feels so abstract and far away because I have no idea what it's going to be like. I get to feel her kick and move very often - Gina makes sure to let me feel her whenever she is nice and active. Little things make me very excited to see her little face and be able to hold her. The other day some noise startled her and she was kicking Gina pretty hard. For some reason she calmed down when I started talking to her. This morning she was asleep and I made her start moving by saying 'wake up!' Figuring out how to be a dad is going to be ... I don't know, I hope I'm good. But I do know that she will be a very photographed baby!

Well Saturday was an interesting day. I thought it would be just like any other day while Ben was gone to work. The weather said that it was supposed to rain later on that day, so I decided to take Magnum for a walk. While we were outside sure enough it started to rain and I started to hear sirens. When I was in Middle School we stayed for a bit with my Grandma in Nebraska and those kind of sirens went off all the time, so I assumed that this was probably the same kind of thing... maybe a fire somewhere or something. I thought it was odd that so many of my neighbors were going with their whole familys somewhere and when they passed me gave me some pretty odd looks. Turns out they were tornado sirens... woops! I got back inside just as a second siren started to go off, so I decided to turn on the TV and see what all this was about. Apparently I was suppsed to be in a storm shelter as soon as I could. We live in an appartment so I grabbed the poochies and got in the tiny downstairs bathroom with the radio. It ended up raining pretty hard and the power went out for a while but we were all fine. The only damage that the tornado did was to a barn quite a ways away from where we're at. Still made for a day out of the ordinary, which can be nice sometimes... :)

I had my first leg cramp the other day. I expected it to be a mild cramp like a charley horse, and somehow I had missed that they come in the middle of the night. We were sound asleep and all of the sudden it started cramping and... it hurt really bad!! I started whining "Ow, my leg!!" but I was still sleepy sounding so Ben couldn't figure out what I was saying. Poor guy thought I was having a contraction or something. It lasted for quite a while and it's still sore! I'm sure that's as bad as the pain is going to get, even through labor... haha, I wish. ;)

Check out our new online photo album, for lots of pictures and some fun stories. Look on the sidebar for the link or go to http://picasaweb.google.com/bgbrendle

Yesterday we went to a Springfield Cardinals game. I'm not all that into baseball but it was still a lot of fun. Ben had never been but seemed to get pretty into it. Today was Ben's day off so we went for a picnic in Finley park. It's so nice just to spend a day together and not have to worry about all that we have to do! We didn't get much done, today but it's been so relaxing. When we got home I made some dinner and I'm not sure how we got started, but we ended up each taking an IQ test. I tried to act like I was just asking Ben random questions so that he'd give me the answers, but he's too clever. We ended up scoring pretty close to each other though! That could be because I said that I was 12... just kidding. ;)

Monday through Thursday our church had VBS and I was in charge of the 2 and 3 year old's. The VBS was a water park theme, so the kids were in groups that would go to different "huts" for crafts, songs, snacks etc. Since my kiddos were so little we had an inside classroom but we still had fun. I think everyone was glad that it didn't go the full week though, all of us (even the kids) were pretty tired out by the end of it. It was really fun to get to know the kids more and to figure out how to be creative enough to keep their attention for the whole time. :) Who knows if I succeeded. :D Yesterday I went to a cookout at our worship pastor's house with the worship/production team from our church. It was a lot of fun but I wished that Ben could have been there. Then today I went to a jewelry party at my friend Libby's house. Get a bunch of girls together, then add jewelry and snacks... it's guaranteed to be a good time. :) Plus, I've gotta find some way to spend all this cash Ben's bringing home. *wink,wink*

The Finley river in Ozark flooded unexpectedly on tuesday. There is a park bench next to this tree on a normal day! Here I'm standing near the river's bridge - usually there's about 10-15' of clearance between the surface and the bottom of the bridge. The water level rose to just a foot below the bridge - pretty scary.

Here's an updated picture of Magnum. Needless to say, he's grown a bit.

A few months before we found out that we're pregnant Ben started writing out the Bible for our first child. He thought that it would be something meaningful to pass down to her once he's done with it. Every chapter starts with a unique letter, which is making it look awesome! I'm so proud of how it's looking I just had to show a picture!

I've been feeling great all throughout my pregnancy, but more and more lately I've just been tired. I can't complain though, since I didn't have hardly any morning sickness or really any complications so far. We're getting so excited for her to come! Sometimes it feels like the weeks are flying by, but at the same time it feels like it'll be forever until she's here. We haven't really taken too many "belly shots" yet. Mainly because I just don't feel like I'm showing enough for them to be any fun! Someday soon maybe I'll be good and let Ben take a picture and post it. :) (note the "maybe") Yesterday our neighbor loaned me her prenatal heart listener thing so that we could listen to the heartbeat, but I guess I'm not talented enough to figure out how to get the thing to work. All I could hear was static, but I'm not worried because as I was laying there waiting to hear her heartbeat she was kicking so hard that she knocked the thing off my belly! Apparently she's fine. :)

Well... I guess I'm not too good at this blogging thing seeing as my last post was over a year ago. Oops. :) A bunch of stuff has happened since then though! We DID move to Oklahoma, then we moved again... this time to Missouri. We're still there. We really love it here. We've gotten involved with an awesome church and made lots of friends through that. Our Christmas present this year was that we found out we're having a baby!! :) She (at least that's what they tell us she is, but I hear they make mistakes with that one... haha) is due in August. We're so excited for her to be here with us! We can't believe how much God has blessed us! We can't wait to see all that He has for us in the future! I'll try to be a bit better at posting from now on... ;)