Anna is 3 months old today!

Big enough for the Bumbo:
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This is totally yummy and one of those make-the-night-before, bake-it-in-the-morning breakfasts. Try it for your family!

Baked French Toast

• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• Chopped walnuts
• 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
• Powdered sugar (optional)
• 12 slices bread, white or cinnamon-raisin
• Berries or thinly sliced, peeled apples
• 6 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla

In 9×13 casserole dish, mix melted butter, brown sugar, and syrup. Sprinkle walnuts over this.

If desired, sweeten cream cheese with powdered sugar to taste. Spread cream cheese on 6 bread slices; lay in single layer in dish. Lay berries or apples on top of this. Top with remaining bread slices.

Mix eggs, milk, and vanilla; pour evenly over bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, bake uncovered at 350° for 45 minutes. Loosen edges with spatula, then invert onto a cookie sheet and let sit a few minutes. Cut and serve.

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When Anna woke up from her nap last evening, this is what I found:

That’s right, folks—still swaddled!

I was intrigued by the miracle blanket Megan told me about in her comment on my “Houdini” post. You really should go there and watch the short video clip of them wrapping up a baby—it’s impressive and a little funny.

I realized I don’t need a $30 blanket to do that; I just need a scrap of fabric!

And that’s what I did. I laid Anna on a long skinny strip of cotton knit fabric, then for each side, brought the fabric up between her arm and her side, wrapped it over her arm and tucked it under her back. Then baby, with arms now immobilized, went into the swaddling blanket.

Last night went pretty well too. We only had to get up once with her other than her feeding; she was fussing a little and needed David to help her get back to sleep. I think we all had a much better night’s sleep than we had been getting recently!

I hope this works for a while. Maybe I’ve at least bought us 3 or 4 more days until she figures a way out of this one too.

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Inspired by our wonderful Jenny pics and my recent sappy moment, I’ve finally landed on a title and new look for my blog. (Thank you, David, for getting it up for me until I can learn enough HTML to do stuff like this myself!) I’ve wanted an actual title for a while, and I guess the answer was right in front of me all the time—I pretty much write about what’s right in front of me! I generally don’t write political commentary, my opinion of world events, or big ideas that will change society. I write about the little day-to-day things that bring blessings to my life. Hope you like it!

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… does not apply in this situation, sweetie! Now get that arm back in there and go to sleep!

(What, did you think this was going to be a commentary on Shane’s recent run-in with the Tulsa P.D.?)

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This is the outfit we brought Anna home from the hospital in. It’s a newborn size; it’s supposed to fit a 5- to 8-pound baby. Now that she’s nearly 3 months and 11 1/2 pounds, it fits. When we brought her home, it just swallowed her, like, is there a baby in there somewhere?

She’s also wearing some 6 month clothes that fit perfectly now, and she’s got some 0-3 month clothes that are still too big. Crazy! It makes it a little hard to organize her stuff!

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I was nursing Anna at the computer, like I often do, and popped in the new Steven Curtis Chapman CD that JoAnne got us. The first song, “Miracle of the Moment”, is one of those songs that K-LOVE plays probably a little too much, but I’ve never really paid attention to the words. I guess I’m a visual learner—stuff doesn’t really sink in until I see it. So I was listening and reading along with the words that came in the CD, and I thought, “This is actually a pretty cool song…”

It’s time for letting go
Of all of our if only’s…

… this is the only moment
We can do anything about

So breathe it in and breathe it out
Listen to your heartbeat
There’s a wonder in the here and now
It’s right there in front of you
And I don’t want you to miss
The miracle of the moment

Sweet, huh? Anyway…

While we’ve had a wonderful time with Anna, I’ve also had some “if only’s” about her birth and our first few weeks together. So as the first line of the song was still sinking in, the chorus started playing; right at that moment Anna suddenly stopped nursing, looked up at me, and with excitement in her eyes, smiled the biggest smile I’ve ever seen! I wish I had a picture because I can’t come close to describing it—it kind of looked like she was laughing her head off except there was no sound, just the expression. We just stayed there a few minutes, smiling at each other, me talking to her and her cooing back.

It really sealed the meaning of the song for me and became my own little miracle moment I won’t forget. I think this might be my new favorite song.

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Here is a sweet picture from David’s first Fathers Day. He sure loves his little girl!

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Thanks a million to Jenny, who took some cool pictures for us last night! Here are a few:

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No, it was not a gathering of Ronald and the Fry Guys. It was the McMillan family reunion this past weekend in Mountain View, AR. My dad is one of five siblings, and each year the five of them and their families gather somewhere for the weekend.

Most of us stayed at Sylamore Lodges just north of Mountain View. David, Anna, and I shared a house with my parents and my brother and his family—that’s six adults and 2 babies in one house—but it was plenty big, and it served as the gathering spot for the rest of the family. On Friday night we all had dinner at Angler’s White River Resort. David and I both had catfish and shrimp. Then everyone sat outside at the lodge and visited for a while. On Saturday everyone picked their own activities. David and I mostly hung out at the house, but we went into town for a little while in the afternoon, poked around a few shops, and picked up a Tommy’s Pizza to take home with us. Saturday night everyone had dinner at our place—fried chicken, barbeque, and plenty of sides. Sunday morning we again gathered at our house for breakfast before everyone headed home. Some pics: (more…)

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