:::Josiah and Daddy's playtime:::

:::A small note about Kristine:::

On December 13 I will start my new career at Vanderbilt Hospital. I am so excited!!! I will be working on the floor with postpartum moms. After 3 months of working at Vanderbilt I will be eligible to to start working on my nursing degree, again, something I am super excited about! I have never really had a career goal. I just wanted to be a mother. However, children are not cheap; and since we want a baseball team we are both going to need to work. When I was in the hospital with Josiah my experience was so great. I was treated like family and I never felt stressed or overwhelmed. When I got home and really thought about it, I realized that I wanted to work as a nurse with recovering mothers. I have been applying for jobs at Vanderbilt for about 3 months and finally got a connection to one of the hiring managers on the floor I want to work. After being very persistent I got an interview and was hired on the spot. Monday is the beginning of great things for me!!!

A little side note: When Chris and I moved here we didn't think this would be a permanent move. We thought maybe 5 years. However, now we are not planning on leaving Nashville. This is our home, where we had our first child, and where, hopefully, Chris will become a paid songwriter. We do miss being so far away from our parents and siblings, but this is what is best for us and where we want to spend our lives.

My name is Josiah and I love to laugh:::

Josiah's favorite things...

If he could do one thing all day, every day for the rest of his life it would be to open and close cabinets and drawers. I have never seen anyone get so excited about anything as excited as Josiah gets when he has his tiny hands on cabinet and drawer knobs.

Laugh when I laugh. If I am laughing, no matter what Josiah is doing, he will stop and look at me and laugh as long as I am laughing. It's pretty awesome.

Be with other kids his age or a little older. He gets so amazed watching other babies play and wants to join as soon as he can get away from being held by mommy. He is getting really good at sharing.

Spending time with daddy. Enough said. If Josiah and I are playing and daddy walks into the room he completely forgets about me and beelines it to daddy. How can I get jealous about that?

Josiah's reaction to Spaghetti...

I can THROW!!!

Yesterday Chris taught Josiah the word "throw". We spent the better part of an hour watching him play catch with his daddy. It was so cute! After every time Josiah threw the ball, he would look at his daddy to get approval. This morning Josiah picked up the ball and started biting it. When Chris asked Josiah to throw the ball to him, he did exactly that. We are so proud of him!! Here's to hoping he likes left field and playing quarterback. 

Josiah's new lion::::

Josiah has been trying SO hard to stand up, but just can't yet. I guess he figures why try so hard and not accomplish it, when I know my mom is going to do it for me eventually. So I know it's partially my fault. The past 2 days he has fallen really hard, on his head. He fell straight back on the tile and once on the carpet... but our carpet is so old and worn down it was like hitting concrete. Needless to say, I felt like a horrible mother for not catching him. So Chris and I decided to get him 2 presents, one for each fall. His first one is a vacuum because he loves watching me vacuum and the second one is an inflatable lion. Chris chose the latter because has fond memories of punching his inflatable clown... go figure. That is how Josiah responded to his lion. Pretty darn cute, right?

HAPPY BOY!

Yes, Josiah is always this happy. He has started posing for pictures. He was playing with his truck, but when I called his name and he saw the camera he put his truck down and smiled. I had no idea he liked trucks until my friend Jamie's son, Oliver, let him play with his. So much fun!! He's such a boy :)

I have such great friends here. I have had several occasions where I needed to be somewhere that I couldn't bring Josiah, and my friends have volunteered to watch him and play with him for as long as I need. So wonderful!

BABABABABABA

::::ME::::

Since giving birth I have lost 45 pounds. I have worked VERY hard at those 45 pounds. However, I am not done; but that's OK because I have actually enjoyed losing weight. At first, not so much. Going to the gym was hard. And with 60 extra pounds I could feel how challenging it was going to be. I was nowhere near in shape and I knew that it was going to take a lot of effort and will power on my part. But once I forced myself to be in the gym 5 days a week I started liking it, even missing it when I wasn't there. I go to 3 or 4 exercise classes a week... the hard ones. Kickboxing, ultimate cardio and ultimate circuit. I'm guaranteed to lose at least 400 calories per class. And I don't miss class unless it's unavoidable. That means saying no to doing things with friends on those eveings I have class, which sometimes is hard to do, but totally worth it. I also lift weights 2-3 times a week. I really do feel great after every time I work out and that motivates me to stay healthy.

Which leads me to my next weight loss must... eating right. There were somethings that I had to give up altogether, like soda, juice, chocolate (I do allow myself one chocolately thing a week) and candy. I don't have any of that stuff in our pantry. If Chris wants a sweet I make him take it to work with him because I know that if it's in my house I am going to eat it, even if I don't like it. I snack out of boredom and if unhealthy snacks aren't an option, I obviously won't eat them. That has had a tremendous positive effect on my eating habits. I also started looking at the nutrition facts. Some things I thought weren't bad for me turned out to be and some things I thought had to be bad weren't. That has helped the most. Realizing how many calories, fat grams and saturated fat grams I should be eating a day vs. how many I actually was (without realizing it). And now that I know what's really good for me, what's in the middle and what's bad for me I have stuck very firmly to my diet.

I'm very proud of myself. I never thought I could do it, but I am! I want to be at my goal weight (a little below what I was before I got pregnant) when Josiah celebrates his one year birthday. I know I can do it. AND... next time I get pregnant I will be much smarter and healthier on my eating decisions. I just assumed that I could eat whatever I wanted because I was "eating for 2". Not true. So here's to 20 more pounds!!

If I can do it, you can do it!

Lately

Josiah is getting so big... and SMART! He hates taking naps. I think he knows there is cooler stuff going on downstairs, and he would rather be where the party is (who can blame him, his mama is REALLY fun). He has figured out how to get out of napping... he poops. I will let him cry for up to 45 minutes before I take him out of his crib and bring him downstairs, but recently he started pooping about 15 minutes into his nap, which I can't let him roll around in, so I take him out, change his diaper then bring him down with me. I probably should put him back in his crib, but I don't. By the time I'm done changing him he's wide awake and too cute to not play with. Little bugger.

He LOVES walking (with our help, of course). Sometimes when we try and sit him on the floor he straight legs it so we can't, and he winds up getting way and we let him walk around the house. It's actually really cute. He is so proud of himself. His mouth is wide open, eyes excited, and squealing. I could be wrong, but I believe as soon as he figures out how to pull himself up, he will go straight to walking.

Yes, I am always this happy!

::::::Tiny Feet::::::

I am not obsessed with feet. I believe they serve their purpose. Most feet are ugly... they have been walked on, danced on, run on, etc. However, Josiah's feet are the cutest things I have EVER seen. They are so fat! I stare at them all the time and talk about his feet all the time (something I didn't realize I did until Chris pointed it out to me). So here they are... you will thank me, I promise.

Here's how cute they are from the back

These are my jumping feet

He's growing up so fast!!

I know I posted a video of him crawling on facebook, but this one is much cuter (which is pretty hard to do when you're already the cutest baby ever).

I just can't believe that he's crawling already. I look at pictures from when he was a newborn and it seems like yesterday. Pretty soon he's gonna be married with four of his own children!

Sleeperstar stayed with us for 2 days last week and we had so much fun. I LOVED getting to host 5 very talented, very genuinely sweet men at my house. Shaun Menary of shaunmenary.com took some candid shots of Josiah playing, so here they are. You don't have to tell me, I know how cute he is...

I've lost 40 POUNDS!!!!! I still have a little more to go, but I know I can do it

Typical Saturday:::

Josiah and Clara

Josiah's girlfriend Clara came over yesterday. Her mommy and I are very good friends so we are OK with them flirting with each other. Here is a progression of what happens when they play together...



Aren't they just adorable? They also like to watch Baby Einstein together and play in the pack 'n' play. They are very good at sharing their toys and teething rings with one another. If he cries, she gets worried and vice versa. I'm so glad they have each other. As well as I am glad I have Clara's mommy, Jenn.

Our sweet baby boy

Hey friends! Lots has happened since my last post. Josiah and I visited Dallas for 2 weeks and had a blast spending time with our family. I got to see the Rangers and Yankees play with my dad and then saw a Rough Riders game a few days later. I so wish we had a major league team in Nashville...

My mom and I drove up to Nashville (with Josiah of course) on Tuesday. We left at 3pm so he could take a nap as soon as we got on the road, then would only be awake for maybe 3 hours of the car ride total. However, that is not what Josiah had planned. He decided to sleep for maybe 3 of the 12 hour car ride... crying for about 6 of them. It was a nightmare! But also hilarious at the same time. We finally arrived home at 3am, just in time for him to fall asleep as we pulled into the driveway. Isn't that special?

Josiah had surgery on Thursday morning (his 6 month bday) to fix a body part that didn't fully develop in the womb. He was such a champ! His surgery was at 8am and we had to be at the hospital at 6. He wasn't allowed to eat anything after midnight, and I thought to myself "this will be fun". If he goes 3 hours without food (he does sleep 11 hours without food though) he is a mad man... I hope the waiting room is empty. And it was. Of course as soon as he was called back he started screaming his head off, but obviously the nurses were used to it because they talked to us in their normal voices and didn't seem bothered by it at all. After about 30 of crying he finally stopped when we started doing squats with him. The took him back to surgery and 90 minutes later the doctor came out and told us everything went perfect! Praise Jesus! I knew it was a routine surgery, but was nonethelss nervous the entire time! The nurse took us back to see him and told us that everyone feel in love with him and thought his pacifier was the best one they've ever seen (would you expect less from us?). We took him home around noon and he is back to his normal self, with a few crying from pain spats. We go back to the doctor on Wednesday so they can remove his stint. Continue to pray for quick healing.

Here are some pictures from our time in Dallas and in the hospital:

His bubba teeth

After surgery... happy as a clam!

swapadvd.com

OK, for all you mothers out there I want to inform you of a website my mama introduced to me... www.swapadvd.com. It's awesome! Here is how it works: You need to find 10 DVDs that you want to trade. Once you list your DVDs people can start requesting them from you. You have to pay for the postage (usually around $1.90) to send the DVD(s) to whomever requests them. Once that person receives the DVD you will get 1 credit; now you are able to request DVDs (1 movie = 1 credit). Chris and I have tons of DVDs that we will never watch, but know we can't sell them for more than $1 at a garage sale, so this worked out PERFECTLY!! I just received 3 Baby Einstein videos for Josiah yesterday, and I have 2 more on the way. At Target they cost $15 each, so by using this awesome trading website I saved $13 per DVD!!!

Anyways, I thought I would share my excitement with this new found easy way to save money. For all you book lovers out there, www.paperbackswap.com rocks as well!!

Pictures!!!!

Hanging out on my turtle

Jumping in my jumperoo!! I'm so big!

Grabbing my toes is my new favorite thing

I finally like tummy time. My mom and dad are very happy about that

We have been having a lot of fun lately. We visited Dallas for 2 weeks the middle of June and had a ball. Chris and I were able to spend lots of time with each other and our bffs while our parents watched Josiah. We went to a Rough Riders game, a concert, 2 movies, went swimming and best of all saw Wicked!!! It was a much needed vacation and rest and recharge for our souls.

Josiah is such a joy to be around. He gets smarter by the minute!! He loves standing up (with my help of course), grabbing things and immediately putting them in his mouth, reaching for his toes, and most of all, smiling and laughing at his mommy and daddy. I've attached a few pics of our adorable little boy! And, of course, a video of the cutest baby alive!

He's so much fun!!!

Chillaxing on a Sunday afternoon...

I like to smile at the camera... sometimes.

Other times I like to sleep for the camera.

But most of the time I like hanging out with my daddy.

I'm as cute as a button sucking on my thumb

Sy Update

Josiah is such a fun little boy. He's just over 3 months old and already has a great personality. He doesn't really fuss (unless he's hungry or constipated... too much?) and thinks I am pretty funny. He just started clasping his hands together, he has laughed twice, and he has almost complete control of his neck. He can kind of grab things in front of him and he is awesome at standing (with our help of course).

We are so blessed to have this little boy in our life. We are thankful that God has entrusted us to take care of him and raise him to know Him. We stare at him at night in awe of how lucky we are and are so happy our lives are completely different now. Thank you Jesus!

Missing Dog

This makes me laugh every time I read it aloud. That is all.

More Sy pictures!

Oh hey, I'm just looking at the camera

I already like football... I sleep in my touchdown pose!

Who me? I'm just the cutest thing ever with my chubby cheeks!

I miss my family

I do. I knew I would, but now that I have a son I miss them even more. I wish my mom and sister and sister-in-law could just call me up, say they are on their way to visit Josiah, and 10 minutes later be here. But that's not the case. They have to take time off work to drive the 11 hours here, or spend $250 on a plane ticket, and cram all our play time into one week or less. Sucks. Don't get me wrong, I love living here. It is absolutely beautiful. The weather is perfect, it's not too crowded, and Chris's career is out here, but I wish my family was here too. That would make it even more perfect.

I also wish Laura and Allison lived here. I miss my best friends. We haven't lived in the same city together since I graduated college (6 years ago). I am missing out on watching Laura be a mom. I know she is such a good one too! I call her on a very regular basis to get mommy advice, and it's always the best. It's also great because I don't have to read several books to find the answer I need. And I am missing out on watching Allison trip over pebbles and misunderstand my words and then turn it into a hilarious inside joke. I think about my two best friends all the time and wish we were together. Will we ever be again?

Baby Einstein

This is Josiah's new favorite toy. If I would let him, he would lay in this thing for hours. But I miss him so I take him out and play with him myself. He stares at the octopuses creepy face and smiles back, kicks his arms and legs and talks to it. It's awesome. Thanks for the advice Laura, and thanks for the gift Aunt Lourie!

My sweet sleeping angel:::

So handsome!

Our first Easter

We were going to go to church today, but Josiah decided to take over an hour to eat so we would have been 30 minutes late... not happening on the day the rest of the world decides to go to church. So instead Chris and Josiah took a nap and I got to do some Spring cleaning, something I love to do! Then we took a walk down to the lake and had our very first picnic together. It was so fun! I love my little family so much!!



I've started to work out again... holy crap I'm having a hard time! I am so out of shape it's not funny. Here's to hoping that by my reunion in October I will be back to normal :)

His first real coo

I caught Josiah "talking" so I had to capture it and share it with you all!

More Josiah photos!

As I sit here, watching my son sleep, I can't believe how blessed I am that God has given him to me. He is such a little miracle. Here are some photos of our precious baby boy.

As promised

Hilariousness

Josiah loves taking baths. Every time he gets in the water he gets so calm. He loves the water running over his tiny body. So today while we were waiting for Chris to get home from work, I decided to take a bath with him. I had just cleaned his poopy diaper, so I figured I was in the clear. Wrong! About 10 minutes later I saw some bubbles come up from under him, so I moved him a bit and saw the biggest dump he has ever taken sitting at the bottom of the tub between my legs. It was so frigging hilarious! Luckily Chris had just come home so he took Josiah and left me sitting in the tub with Josiah's poop. We would have taken a picture of him in the tub with his huge dump, but I was in there with him and trust me, NOBODY wants to see that. So here's a couple pictures of him from last week. He's so cute. I will upload a video of him by the end of the weekend :)

Let me brag on Chris...

He is a wonderful husband. He treats me like a princess and loves me so much, that I honestly don't know what I did to deserve him. But let me tell you... he is one amazing father! He loves Josiah so much and I know that it physically pains him to leave us five days a week to work at a job he doesn't love. He comes home and first kisses me, then Josiah. He changes clothes (the women he works with wear all sorts of perfumes) then picks up his baby and holds him, feeds him, talks to him, tries to make him laugh and finally puts him to bed. Then he gets up at 3am and feeds him again so I can get some solid sleep even though he is the one who has to get up at 545 to get ready for work. How incredible! I don't know many husbands who do an early morning feeding, so I know how lucky I am. Josiah is so lucky to have him as a daddy.

And I am even more blessed to have him as a husband. Even though I gained an undisclosed amount of weight that no woman would be proud of during pregnancy, he never forgets to tell me how beautiful I am and that he loves my body as it is, stretch marks and all (though he claims he doesn't notice them, which I know he's lying but am grateful he is). He works hard for us. He goes to a job that he doesn't dislike, just doesn't like because it's not something he's passionate about, so that I don't have to work and can stay home with our little guy and not have to put him in daycare, which I am so thankful for. Then on Saturdays he works on his music so that hopefully soon he can just be doing that for a living. He works so hard. And he works often. He has promised that Sundays are his days off and that he won't think about work or music on that day and only devote himself to us. I love that he does that because I know how far behind he is on his music and that he could be working on that when Josiah is sleeping, but he wants to hang out with me instead. Truly, what a great man I am married to... thank you Jesus for this blessing in my life.

Oh what a year brings...

How things change in a year. On March 1, 2009 Chris and I moved to Nashville. It was just the two of us. There was no little dude in my belly, we didn't have a home, and we only knew 4 people. Today there are 3 of us. We have a beautiful home and are making friends that we know will be part of lives forever.

We knew God wanted us here. We waited for what we believed was God's timing. We knew it was going to be tough and that we would miss our family and friends, but knowing that God wanted this for us made it easier. We have come a long way in putting all our trust in Him. It was hard at first, trying to differentiate what we thought God wanted for us and what He really wanted for us. Make sense?

Josiah is such an incredible blessing to us. We are so honored that God has given him to us to love unconditionally and teach him the Truth. We realize how lucky we are to have him. So many of our friends have been trying for months, some years, to get pregnant. We pray for them and that God gives them what they desire. Children truly are a blessing and a miracle. Just 2 weeks into this and we know our lives have changed forever, in the best way possible.

We are praying that this year Chris gets a publishing deal and that he can write from home so he can spend more time with Josiah (and me). I know he misses him terribly when he leaves every morning to go earn a living for our family of 3. I am so thankful Chris does that for us. So that I can stay home and be with Josiah all the time. I am so blessed.

Adventures in Parenting

Josiah has been home for 5 days and it has been so much fun. However, I didn't realize I crazy I am until now. I have the most irrational fears now that I have a child. I think that in the middle of the night he is just going to stop breathing and there is nothing I can do about it. I also have a fear that I, or anyone else for that matter, will drop him on some hard surface. Crazy, I know. Other than my ridiculous irrational fear of the ocean and heights, I consider myself to be a pretty sane person. Not anymore. Any other mothers out there get like this when they became a mother?

I don't mind the lack of sleep. He is so freaking adorable that I don't care that he wakes up and stays up for nearly 2 hours at a time. Yes, we're working on getting his days and nights correct, but I really don't mind. Especially since I get a good nap in from 8-11am.

He makes the cutest noises. Chris has nicknamed him Squeaky because instead of crying he squeaks. So I have come to differentiate the squeaks... which one means he's hungry v. which one means he needs a diaper change. And let me just say that our son is definitely a combination of the Reyes/Munselle genes because he poops and farts ALL THE TIME. The only time he cries is when we change his diaper. We thought he would cry during a bath, but he LOVES baths. It's really fun.

I could go on and on and it's only been 9 days. More to come later. I'm tired and need to go get my 2 1/2 hours of sleep.

Josiah Carlos Munselle

We are proud to welcome our son, Josiah Carlos Munselle, into the world. He was born at 4:17 AM on February 19th, weighing 6 lbs 12 oz and is 19.5 inches long. He and mommy are both very healthy and loving life. We love this child with all our hearts and pray for his salvation. Stay tuned for more videos and pics...

Things I'm looking forward to:

1. The gym. Since month 5 my back has been killing me, so I haven't been going to the gym 'cause I can't really do anything. Looking forward to getting my pre-baby body back!

2. SUSHI!!!!! Enough said.

3. Cowboy Coffee... French Vanilla Cream and a splash of coffee.

4. Sleeping on my stomach... and back!

5. Going longer than 2 hours without getting hungry.

6. Being able to shave my legs comfortably.

I mean, come on!! He's precious!

Our adorable nephew Jacob. Nearly 1 year old!