Liam is 5 months old!

It’s cliché, but true - he’s growing up so quickly! He has been sitting on his own for a few weeks now. He’s working on crawling and he’s SO vocal. He almost never stops “talking”. He has quite the personality!

Lately he’s been carefully watching Ben or I talk…and then he tries to move his mouth in a talking motion. It’s hilarious. I caught just a short glimpse of it on camera this weekend.

For those of you who don’t have Facebook (aka…Bethany)…Here you go! :)

Thankful

Tuesday night I had planned on writing a blog about Thanksgiving. That was before our power went out. There’s a tree in our front yard that’s technically on city property. The tree is obviously dead and it has been dangerously hanging over our house and driveway ever since we’ve moved here. We’ve asked the city to take it down, and they keep promising they will, but clearly they’re not going to. So, it was no surprise when a huge branch from it fell in our front yard Tuesday night, taking out our power line. We called Consumers Energy and were assured we’d have power back in the morning, so we decided just to bundle up and stay put. Around 2am we heard men outside working on it, so we for sure expected everything to be up and running anytime. Wednesday morning came and went without our power being back on. Long story short, the company that took down the line Tuesday night also broke the piece on our house that the line connects to. We called Consumers Power, but we were told WE had to pay for an electrician to come out and fix it before they could turn our power back on. It took a couple of days, but we finally got an electrician out to our house and last night our power finally came back on. Praise the Lord!

We don’t realize how blessed we are to have warm homes, hot water, and comfortable beds until it’s unexpectedly taken away. I’m so thankful for our home. I’m thankful for our neighbor who plugged our fridge into an extension cord so that all our food wouldn’t go to waste. I’m especially thankful for Ben’s Mom who let us stay with her while we were without power.

It feels so good to be back in our home! To celebrate last night we made ice cream sundaes and watched The Holiday. It was the perfect start to the weekend!

Pictures

Here are a few pictures from this past weekend...

Saturday morning - Liam watching his daddy sing and play guitar.

Liam tried rice cereal for the first time! He wasn't sure what to think.

It's amazing to see what new things he can do every day! This past weekend he started rolling over and by Sunday night he was up on his arms!

Twenty-Five

Yesterday I turned 25. Now, I know that’s not actually THAT old, but for some reason it feels old to me. Maybe because I’m now closer to 30 than I am 20. :)

This weekend has been so incredible so far! Ben did a great job of making my birthday feel extra special. We spent the majority of the day yesterday relaxing at home. Then Ben’s sister, Catie came to watch Liam so that we could go out. Ben planned the evening and has kept it a surprise for several weeks now. I’m so proud of him; he’s usually terrible at keeping secrets!

He took me to a restaurant in Lansing called Bravo. The food was AMAZING. Then after dinner we shopped around for a bit before going to see the movie 50/50. That might sound like a pretty simple night, but it was SO much fun for us. It’s been over 6 months since we’ve had a real date night like that, so it was just really great. Ben also told me what my birthday gift was – a Kindle Fire. (It won't be released until November 15th so I have to wait a bit for it.) For those of you who know me well, you know that my shelves are overflowing with books that I buy off of Amazon. I’m so excited to have all my books on one device and to not have to wait for them to ship to our house. Any suggestions on what my first book purchase should be?

Now it’s Sunday morning. We’re all cozy on our couch in sweat pants, drinking hazelnut coffee while watching HP deathly hallows part 1. (I’m gearing up for the final one to come out this Friday!) Then this afternoon we’re heading to a birthday get together with Ben’s family. I can’t wait!

This has been such a great weekend and next weekend is going to be pretty awesome too! We get to feed Liam rice cereal for the first time and I’m pretty excited to find out how he reacts to it. I’m sure it’ll be entertaining.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes, friends. I feel so blessed.

Liam's Nursery

This weekend was the first time since Liam was born that I felt like I really tackled a bunch of housework. It was awesome! We also (finally) finished decorating the nursery. We originally wanted to paint the walls (they are currently a yellowish-orange color), but decided against it just because of the amount of time it would require.

Here are a few pictures of what we added to Liam's room this weekend.

A day well spent

This past Thursday a couple friends and I took the day off work to kayak the Kalamazoo River. The weather was so warm and the trees were beautiful. It was pretty close to being the perfect day.

On the Road

Well, we just got back from a whirlwind of a weekend. Saturday we went up to spend the weekend my sister, her husband and their baby girl Avigail. Liam and his cousin Avi are starting to interact when they are together and it’s so fun to watch! Saturday night we went down to ArtPrize (www.artprize.org). It was extremely crowded, but still so fun to check out some of the art work while hanging out in downtown GR.

Sunday we went to my sister’s church. It was really refreshing because it’s been so long since we’ve attended church as a family. We’ve lived in Jackson for over 2 years now and have yet to find a church that we really feel comfortable with, but we always enjoy attending their’s. After church we then headed to Holland for a Punches Family Reunion. It was at Kollen Park on Lake Macatawa in downtown Holland. It turned out to be really cold and windy so we didn’t stay long because Liam was fussy. I don’t see my Dad’s side of the family very often though so it was still nice.

Now we’re at home watching a movie while catching up on laundry. Tomorrow morning I head back to Holland for my third time in 5 days. Welcome to travel season for my job!

Liam's doctor appointment

Last Friday Liam had his 2 month doctor appointment. He now weighs 11 pounds, 12 ounces and he’s 23 inches long. I feel like he’s growing so quickly!

He got a bunch of vaccinations, and he did so well with getting the shots. He cried for about 5 minutes and that was pretty much it. I was so proud of him. :) Since I wasn’t sure how he would react to them I decided to take the afternoon off of work. It was SO awesome to have some time to play with Liam, get stuff done around the house and run some errands. It was just what I needed.

Liam’s doctor appointment also confirmed what we were already thinking; Liam has eczema. He has it all over his face, head, legs and back. This explains why he’s been acting fussier lately and why he’s scratching his face. He seems pretty uncomfortable.

So, for now we’re trying some creams and lotions, using a special body wash and only giving him soy formula. His doctor said this should get it under control. There’s a chance it could go away by the time he turns one, but we’re not counting on it since Ben’s didn’t go away until he was almost an adult. We’ll see!

Back to work

Well, we survived our first week!

Fall happens to be one of the busier times of year for my job. Reps are usually only in the office a couple days a week and spend the rest of their time on the road visiting high schools and attending college fairs. When I went into work on Monday most Reps were already out on the road, but I hadn’t even started planning my travel yet – so I had to start planning as soon as I got into the office. My travel territory is the Grand Rapids area and in the years past I would go up and stay overnight for several days. Obviously I don’t want to be away overnight, so I’m trying to plan my travel this year so that I am only gone during the day. I still have several nights over the next few weeks when I’ll be gone until 11pm, but thankfully it’s only for a few weeks. I think Ben and I are both feeling like we just need to get through the next month, and then we’ll be able to breathe again.

Ben also started his new job on Monday. So far he seems to like it, although he has a ton of new information to learn with all the state regulations and policies. Next week he will be in Lansing every day for some certification his job requires. I definitely don’t envy him! Funny part of his job – his previous job was almost all guys and now he is the ONLY guy in the office. We’ll see if he can handle the drama. :)

And I can’t forget to mention – Liam started going to daycare this week. To say it was rough doesn’t begin to describe it. To go from spending ALL day with him to only seeing him for 2 hours at night before he falls asleep is definitely not fun. However, it is getting slightly easier and I'm thankful for that.

I was reminded recently of the importance of leaning on God for strength. I’m so thankful for His strength, because I know without Him this transition would be a lot more difficult.

“The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust Him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.” Psalm 28:7 (New Living Trans.)

One more week!

Well, today begins my last week of maternity leave. I still can’t believe how fast it’s gone. I’m feeling pretty bittersweet about it. On one hand, I’m looking forward to getting dressed up every day, having a more regular schedule and being around adults again! On the other hand, I will really miss all of the one-on-one time I’ve had with Liam. I feel like I’ve been able to bond with him more than anyone, even more than Ben simply because of the amount of time I have with him.

This week we finally bought him a bumbo seat. I wasn’t sure what all the hype was about – until we tried it out. It allows him to sit up, without any help from us and he loves it!

In other news…Ben got a new job! He’ll be a Foster Care Case Manager for Lutheran Social Services of Michigan. Not only will he be working for a better organization, he will have a much more normal work schedule: Monday-Friday 8am-5pm. This also means we’ll finally be able to go to church as a family. And I’m also excited about it because it’s a statewide organization with their largest office in Grand Rapids, so it could potentially help us move closer to family someday.

The search for day care…

With just 3 weeks of maternity leave left Ben and I have started to work on deciding what day care we will send Liam too.

We’ve narrowed it down to 2 Christian day care centers – both in the Spring Arbor area. (I really wanted a place that’d be close to my work so that I could stop in during my lunch breaks.) Tonight we went to an open house at one of the day cares we are considering. They just recently moved into a new building about 1 ½ miles from my office. I was happy to find that the facility was much nicer than the previous building they were in. We met with the director and the child care provider who would be watching over Liam. The open house also gave us the opportunity to meet the other parents who send their children there. The day care has 3 other infant boys between the ages of 5 months and 18 months. Liam seemed SO young compared to them, but I’m sure he will have a lot of fun watching them! (Hopefully he doesn’t pick up too many of their bad habits…or germs.) :)

Friday we’re going to visit the other day care we’re considering and then we have to decide by early next week. It’s such a nerve wrecking process, especially because I don’t want to send him to day care in the first place. I just keep reminding myself that everything will work out, and I’m sure it will. It’ll probably just take some time to get used to the change.

Maternity Leave

I thought for sure I would blog more once I was home on maternity leave, but I couldn’t have been more wrong! Needless to say, being a full-time mom has proven to be so much more work than I originally anticipated.

It’s been two weeks since we brought Liam home from the hospital. On one hand it feels like the weeks have gone so fast, but on the other hand it seems like it’s been forever since I was still pregnant.

Anyway, he was born at 4:38pm on July 12th weighing in at 7 lbs, 3 ounces and he was 20 inches long. I was originally scheduled to be induced at 7:30 that morning, but by that time I was already well into labor. By 9:30am by contractions were only 2 minutes apart and I was begging for my epidural. Thankfully it came quickly. :)(By the way – props to anyone who has given birth without an epidural…you’re now my new hero.)

He did really well in the hospital, except that he wasn’t eating well. The doctors almost had us stay an extra day because he had lost so much weight but they agreed to let us go home if we came back the next day for him to be weighed. That appointment proved that he had gained enough weight and now he’s well over 8 lbs, so his doctor is no longer worried about his weight.

Two days after he was born we brought our little guy home. I am so thankful that Ben had a few days off work to help with the transition. He’s been SO great! It’s been so awesome just to watch Ben interact with our son and I feel so blessed to be married to a man who equally shares in the responsibility of raising our child. (I NEVER expected him to get up in the middle of night when he has to be at work at 7am, and yet he does it…I’m so lucky!) After Ben went back to work my mom came and stayed for a few days. It was so nice to have her helping with the cooking and cleaning, which allowed me to work on catching up on sleep.

Now it’s just Liam and me at home during the day. I’m loving all of my time with him, but still working on balancing chores & sleep. I know I should be napping when he is since I’m up all night, but that’s so hard to do when there’s housework that can be done. Eventually I’ll get it figured out.

This coming weekend we are moving into our new home (another rental). We’re so excited that we’ll have the extra space and just anxious to get the move over with. We’re praying everything goes smoothly with this additional transition. We’re also continuing to pray about Ben’s job situation. He continues to look for jobs in his field that won’t require him to work on Sundays, but employment opportunities are pretty slim still.

We’re also praying that we’ll find the right daycare for Liam. I only have 7 weeks until I go back to work and we need to have plans in place well before then. I had a list of places we were going to check out, but none of them have turned out to be what we’re looking for. We’re hoping to find something close to my work that we will feel comfortable with. It’s kind of scary leaving your kid with someone you don’t know, and we just really hope to feel at peace about where we send him. Keep us in your prayers if you can!

Life Update

Well, a lot has happened in the past week! As some of you know, Ben and I were pursuing the idea of moving to Grand Rapids this summer. Ben was interviewing for a part-time worship leader position and I submitted a proposal to my supervisor to continue my current job from Grand Rapids.

For a while it really looked like it was going to work out, and Ben & I were REALLY excited about the opportunity! Unfortunately, this past week we found out that the worship leader position wouldn’t pay as much as we originally thought it would. In fact, we wouldn’t make enough to cover our bills each month. However, we weren’t quite ready to say that door was closed, so we continued to pray about it and we also looked over our budget extensively to see if there was a way we could make it work – if my job proposal was approved.

We weren’t supposed to hear back from my supervisor for a few more weeks and we decided not to make any decision until we did hear back. However, I was secretly praying that if it really wasn’t His will for us right now He’d make it very clear by NOT allowing my proposal to be approved. I just can’t imagine how confused I’d feel if it had been approved and yet Ben’s work opportunity still didn’t pay enough.

After I spent all of Tuesday praying that God would make things clear, my boss approached my Wednesday morning about my proposal. He said that they were really excited about the ideas I had to improve recruitment in the Grand Rapids area and they were really interested in the idea of me working from home in Grand Rapids. HOWEVER, they asked if I would be willing to wait another year because they feel my leadership in the office is needed this coming fall as we’re going through a major transition (4 out of 9 Admissions Reps are leaving this summer).

I can’t even begin to describe how relieved I felt! YES, I’m disappointed we are not moving to GR this summer, but I’m so thankful that God didn’t completely shut that door. Wednesday night I had to tell Ben the news and I was so worried he’d take it hard. He’s been SO excited about this worship leader opportunity and he’s been so unsatisfied with his current job! I was SO thankful with how he took the news. Like me, he really felt at peace about it and he also felt that God was making it clear what we were supposed to do.

Although this was a pretty disappointing week for us – God has shown his love for us by blessing us in a different way. We currently live in a very small (900 sq feet) house that has very poor insulation (we can never get the temp below 80 in the summer!). We love the neighborhood we live in, but we’ve been so stressed about continuing to live in such a small, uncomfortable space, especially with a newborn just around the corner.

Thankfully, our good friend Dan (who is moving to Scotland next month) has offered us his (2 story, 3 bedroom) home for about half of what we currently pay in rent! We’re SO thankful! It’s a gorgeous home that he completely remodeled just this past year, and there’s tons of extra storage space! We can’t wait to move in next month!

While we are still dealing with the disappointment, we so thankful for God’s continued provision and blessings. We couldn’t ask for more!

Showers of Blessings

This past weekend we had our last baby shower!

We were definitely blessed by friends and family who wanted to throw us showers and give gifts. As soon as our last shower was over Ben & I went shopping and bought all the last minute things we need and then came home to organize the nursery. We’re so thankful to have everything we need and now we’re just waiting for the big day!

Roth-Punches Family Shower!



Cupcakes that my sister-in-law Catie made for our church shower!



Baby's bedding set - a gift from the girls at work!

Cake that my sister-in-law Danielle made for our Santee Family Shower!

Finally! A picture of Ben & I with Baby Santee. We absolutely cannot wait to meet him!

Thank you to everyone who put on a shower for us!!

GR Photo Shoot

Over Memorial Day weekend we decided to celebrate my little sister, Sarah's 16th birthday! We went out to eat, got pedicures together and then met a photographer (& friend of Jennifer's) in downtown Grand Rapids for a sister photo shoot!

It was SUCH a fun weekend and a nice way to celebrate Sarah. She's an amazing girl! I love that I am inspired by her spiritual maturity and her desire to live for God. In so many ways I look up to her and I can't wait to see how God uses her. I love you Sarah! Happy (early) 16th Birthday!!

Here's a glimpse of some photos from our shoot:

The Nursery (so far)

Although Ben & I are hoping to move sometime, we decided to go ahead and set up the nursery in the meantime - we really don’t want to get caught off guard with nothing ready.

We still have quite a few items we need to pick up for the room (the bedding set, wall decorations, crib mattress, etc.) but it’s nice to at least have the furniture up for now!

30 weeks!

I still can’t believe we only have 10 more weeks until we get to meet our little guy! I had another Dr. appointment this morning and everything is looking good. I’m scheduled to start my maternity leave on July 1^st and I’m definitely looking forward to having a couple months at home with the baby.

As much as we are excited, we’re also starting to feel the pressure to have things ready in time. As some of you know, we’d like to move out of the house we’re currently renting because of how small it is (only about 900 sq feet!). We have a couple options we’re looking at, including renting a 2-story, 3 bedroom house from a friend of ours. We just have a lot up in the air and need a lot of prayer as we seek God’s guidance. Also, Ben’s car unexpectedly died this week. We could get it fixed but it would be close to $3,000. We’re hoping & praying we can find something reliable, yet affordable and hopefully soon!

We’ll see how things work out!

Grand Rapids & Brohman

This weekend was so wonderful and it was exactly what I needed! We had the opportunity to go to Grand Rapids for the weekend, which we haven’t done since last fall. We spent Friday night & Sunday with some of my siblings and then Saturday we went up to Brohman to spend the day with friends at their cabin. It was gorgeous outside and it was so relaxing just to sit in the sun and catch up. I love that Ben has finally been there and has had a glimpse of one of my favorite places!

28 Weeks & 26 Weeks!

Sisters!

Uncle Ben & Micah

God's Peace

This week in my daily devotionals I came across this passage of scripture, and it just really spoke to me.

Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.

Philippians 4:6-7 (New Living Translation)

These two verses are so relevant to my life right now. With just over 3 months until we start our family, Ben and I have been stressing over our life situation. In particular, we’d REALLY like for Ben to have a new job (one where he won’t have to work Sundays so that we can go to church together) and we also really wished we lived closer to my family.

These are concerns that have been on my heart for almost a year now, but lately I’ve noticed a huge shift in my attitude. About 5 months ago I decided to stop worrying about it and to work on enjoying where God has us now. It’s cliché, but a coworker said something the other day that had a big impact on my attitude: “We bloom where God plants us.” That’s SO true!

In addition to working on my attitude, several months ago I committed to spending each day in my Bible (thanks to Melissa’s challenge!). I can’t believe how life changing that has been! YES , I continue to want to move back “home”. YES, I continue to ask that God will give Ben a new job, BUT I’ve learned to thank God for all he has done and continues to do!

Through all of this I’ve started to experience God’s peace, and that has been the most wonderful thing of all!

Oh boy!

So, I know I already posted on Facebook but I figured I should still update my blog since it's been several weeks.

Today we had our 20 week Dr. appointment and our ultrasound! We're having a boy! The baby is looking good and very healthy. His heart rate was 156. Here are some pictures from this week:

Baby Santee...20 weeks!

Baby bump...20 weeks!

On another note, Ben and I finally had the chance last week to get away for a bit to celebrate our one year anniversary. We went and stayed at this great place called The Harbor Grand in New Buffalo, MI. Because it was their slow season we got a great discount on our awesome room and we got extra-great service since we were pretty much the only ones staying at the time. Our room had a jacuzzi and fireplace so we spent a lot of time just relaxing. We also went to Chicago one of the days. Although I've been there so many times I've never had the chance to visit the Art Institute, so Ben & I made a trip just to see it. Luckily, we went on a week day so we pretty much had the whole museum to ourselves! It was a very relaxing and fun getaway. Here are just a couple snapshots from our trip:

Lake Michigan

Entrance to the Chicago Art Institute



14 weeks!

I’m in my 14^th week of my pregnancy. The second trimester is finally here! It has been so nice to have a decrease in the morning (more like afternoon) sickness I experienced the whole first trimester. I’m hoping the heartburn I’m having daily will decrease as well. Until then I’ll just have to continue carrying Mylanta with me everywhere. :)

I’ve had regular checkups every 4 weeks and so far everything looks good. The last couple of visits the doctor has tried to let us hear the heartbeat but the baby is always moving around so much we haven’t been able to hear it clearly yet.

Now that I’m in the 2^nd trimester we’re counting down the weeks until we find out if we’re having a boy or a girl. We should know by the middle of February! For a while we were really hoping for a baby boy but now we’re equally excited at the idea of having a little girl, especially now that we have names picked out for both genders that we absolutely adore!

As we look toward the future and the idea of starting a family soon we’re continuing to pray for Ben’s job. His work schedule is Sunday – Thursday. It’s been extremely difficult to not have our weekends together and even more stressful to not be able to attend church together. When Ben took the job we didn’t realize just how much that would affect our life/marriage. We’re continuing to pray that by summer he will either have a new job or there can be a schedule change with his current job.

We’re continuing to praise God for all he’s doing and we’re trusting in Him for the future!

14 weeks!