Saturday, December 31, 2011

It's A New Year...

From this day in 2010...

{side note...this 3 week old newborn thankfully did not pull an all-nighter on New Year's Eve last year (or ever, Praise the Lord)}

to this day in 2011...


from our home to yours...

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!

May this new year be your best yet...

we Fohner's are super excited for what this year brings for our family...

& we hope your's will be as blessed ours looks like it will be  :)

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas 2011...& what a year it's been!

Last year, Christmas came a little early...


16 days early, to be exact...

at 1:52 AM on that day, Matthew & I received our favorite gift to date...

and at a time so early I can't even remember...

on Christmas Day of last year...

I awoke to the soft cries of a hungry newborn...

and as we snuggled while he got his early breakfast...

I could not think of a better way to be woken up.


and this year on Christmas Day...

I again woke to cries that were a tad louder than last year...

and was greeted by a smiley one year old so happy to see me that he was bouncing in his crib like he does every morning...

and here I thought that Christmas couldn't get any better than last year's  :)


This year I'm thankful again for the Lord's promises...

I'm thankful for our health...

I'm thankful for our little embryos waiting for us at Shady Grove...

and Lord willing, that He allows one of those to join our family by next Christmas  :)


“'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 
   'when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, 
a King who will reign wisely 
   and do what is just and right in the land. 
In his days Judah will be saved 
   and Israel will live in safety. 
This is the name by which he will be called: 
   The Lord Our Righteous Savior.'"

-Jeremiah 23:5-6


MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Somebody's ONE!

Five days before A.B.'s big day we threw a shindig for little dude.  We squeezed in most of the following on 2 out of 3 floors of our house...

Abram's great grandparents...

our four parents & their spouses/fiance...

all five of our siblings & their spouses/girlfriend...

all ten of our nephews & nieces...

all twelve girls (& their families) from my Bible Study...

& a few other of our closest friends

{whew}

needless to say it was a packed house,

but a very fun one  :)

Abram looks like his father here, no?


these are what Abram has in his hands for most of the day, every single day.  I mean, I have to hide these suckers from him so he can actually use his hands.  He even crawls with them...cracks me up. 

one of Abram's gifts from his great grandparents, a beautiful antique wooden rider with a chrome plate from my grandfather's motorcycle store

opening his rider that Mimi (my mom) & Paps got for him...I'll post a hilarious video of Abram's favorite thing to do with his rider (hopefully in the next few days)

what we gave Abram.  For now he loves holding the blocks in his hands while he crawls, just like his rings...silly kid

this boy LOVES to read

 speaking of what Abram loves, Gianna (Matthew's Goddaughter) is definitely on that list.  I'm not going to lie, I would not be opposed to a future union of these two...my grandbabies would be absolutely gorgeous (Gianna is b-e-a-utiful & A.B., well, you know, handsomest dude ever [besides his father, of course])


 yup, I was crying here

 & here, on the rocking horse that my dad & Cindy made from materials from the house they're building

with his cake (a giant cupcake) I made for him to go to town on.  He was all gentleman-like & didn't get near as messy as I thought he would.  There's plenty of time for me to teach him to get all dirty in the future (among other boyish things).  Since I was constantly outside on some practice field or playing football with the boys at recess through middle school, between my tomboy self & Matthew, little boy will have plenty of opportunities :)

here are the pics I take each month that I post about here



Abram's photo book containing all his ultrasounds, my weekly pregnancy pics, our maternity shoot, newborn photo shoot, A.B.'s monthly pics, & pics Matthew has taken of little boy since he's been born 

after most everyone had pieced out, little dude had his cake & ate it, too (he actually liked the organic icing...it was sa-weet!)


It was a beyond fun day.

We feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful, memorable, & healthy first year with Abram.  We never want to take for granted any moment we have had with sweet boy.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of being Abram's earthly parents...we feel so honored that You chose to give him to us!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

First Haircut

Question of the Day

You know it's time for your son's first haircut when...

a) half of it goes under his shirt while the other half spills over his collar

b) no stranger has said "what a beautiful girl" yet but you're beginning to tread water into his-hair-is-long-enough-to-make-him-look-like-a-girl territory (ironically some people see his blue eyes [despite the fact he's always dressed like a boy or in blue...I'm very purposeful in how I dress little dude] & say "he's too pretty to be a boy".  I'm sorry, but what does that even mean?  If someone can tell me a response back to this, I'll gladly take it.  I don't even know what you say to that?)  Anywho...

c) his hair is doing the awkward I-can't-decide-if-I-want-to-start-to-curl-on-the-ends-or-get-weird-kinks

d) see pic directly below

e) all of the above


If you guessed "e", congrats!

{sorry no prize for you except knowing you're awesome}

So the day before Abram's 1st Birthday Party (saved for a coming-to-you-soon post) I grabbed my rarely used & therefore super sharp sewing scissors, stripped him down to his diaper, & sat little boy on my lap in our big tub...



can we just press pause for a second to look at that line of drool from his lip to mid-upper arm...me boy is a serious drooler

I wet little dude's head down with a spray bottle of water just like my parents used to do when they cut mine & my brother's hair...



shed some tears...

okay, a lot of tears...

mine, not Abram's thankfully.

Meanwhile, Matthew was staring at me like I was on crazy pills.

This whole cutting hair process took like half an hour...

seriously

it was really hard to actually bring myself to cut his hair.

I mean, this was his first haircut...

FIRST HAIRCUT.

Can you tell I'm a first time mom?

My baby,

who had still been growing inside me not even 12 months before this day,

was about to have the hair that had been sprouting on his sweet not-so-little-Bateman-inherited-noggin since he was a wee one inside me belly CHOPPED OFF.

{I'm about to cry again just thinking about it...silly mom hormones}


I digress...


Abram was a champ & I didn't do too shabby of a job.  Matthew & I took turns holding him so I could get the sides & back (his front didn't need a trim).

We loaded up the clippings in a plastic baggie (not the cutest way to save his first sheared locks), but hey, it works.

And we saved some $ by having me do it here at home...

as well as my sanity since I'm pretty sure I would have cried like a baby at the salon & probably tried to yank the scissors out of a poor beautician's hand at the last second anyway.


That's all for now...FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY POST COMING NEXT  :)