So many wonderful people in our lives!

We have been blessed with MANY opportunities to see beloved family and friends over the past two weeks, so I thought I would share the pictures from these special visits. How grateful we are to be surrounded by loved ones of all ages!

Aunt Holly (Lacey's aunt) and Grammy (Lacey's mom) visited us on Friday, October 17. We had such a FUN girls' day! After having lunch at home, we walked to Downtown Staunton, where we visited Maggie's Beads, one of Mama's favorite stores! This was Susannah's first trip to Maggie's (it's about time), where she saw all sorts of sparkly necklaces and beads made by this phenomenally artistic woman. We then ventured into several gift shops before returning home.

Aunt Holly and Grammy enjoyed sitting on our sunporch talking to me. I didn't sleep much that day at all, but I was still absolutely delightful. Scarcely a peep was heard during the many, MANY hours of my wakefulness!

Boy, was I thrilled to see Daddy after a long day of shopping with the girls! When he comes home from work, I just can hardly contain myself. I smile and squawk and can't take my eyes off of him. Here, I am telling him all about my trip to Maggie's Beads and the many necklace ideas Mama and I have!

A girl needs some good "Mama's milk" at the end of the day. Thankfully, Aunt Holly was there to give it to me before I was tucked in for the night!

Even after the guests leave there is still tons of fun to be had! My daddy just LOVES the fact that I am strong enough to be "tossed around" a bit now! He is itching for the moment when I make a great wrestling partner, but until then he settles for hog-tying my fuzzy sister Rylie. I love to watch the two of them in action. Makes for exciting entertainment.

I delight in "flying" with my Daddy!

Here, I am chewing on my pink bunny while Rylie chews on her blue bunny. I watch her intently for tips on how to eviscerate things; however, I am gonna have to wait til my teeth come in. Mama thinks Rylie is a poor example for me of how to treat our things. Ah, well...there are some battles she just refuses to pick!

Rylie REALLY, REALLY likes me. She has a need to lick my face every time she can, and when Mama tells her not to, she goes for my feet or hands instead. She makes me blink rapidly and smile.

In my spare time, I love to go to Gypsy Hill Park in my stroller. I have to wear my jacket and rosebud mittens these days, because fall has definitely arrived. I could sit in my stroller all day long as I look at God's creation. Trees are still my favorite, so Mama strolls me under those beautiful, towering structures that have color-changing leaves. Soon they will be bare, so we must savor the leaves while they last! The park is just a block away, so we make sure to go almost daily.

This is Ethan, a big boy from Covenant Nursery School. He visited last week with his mama, Jakki, and his little brother Noah. Ethan and Noah were adopted from Korea, and watching them play was soooooo much fun! Noah, age 1, gave Mama a preview to all of the childproofing that needs to be done very soon in our treacherous home environment... It was fun to see Ethan on "this side" of the womb! Last year, while Mama taught him at Covenant, he asked daily to see her belly and to feel me move around. He was also pretty fascinated with the various "in the womb" picture books she brought in, as well as the Fetal Development Timeline she added to each week.

This is my buddy Grant, who is seven weeks my junior. When Mama can drag her sorry self out of the sack and get us ready to go before 10am, we walk in the park with Grant and his mama Jamie. Grant brings his dog Petie, and Rylie joins us, as well. We have a great time together! We hope that the mornings won't stay so cold, but we're not holding our breath...

Big college girl!!!! On Friday of last week, Mama and I went to UVA to visit Caroline Hecht. Mama baby-sat for Caroline and her three younger brothers from the time Caroline was 18 months old. She is now 18 YEARS old and a freshman at UVA, which is downright unbelievable! We had such a wonderful day in Charlottesville chatting about life then and now, eating pizza and strolling the Downtown Mall. We then hung out for a little while in Caroline's dorm room. So many memories of beach vacations and chasing naked brothers and falling down staircases and eating bowls of brownie mix... :)

Caroline and Susannah on Caroline's trendy pink and green duvet-covered college girl bed!

From Charlottesville, we headed east to Richmond to visit Aunt Jenna and cousin Sophie (now eight months old!). It has been SUCH a blessing for Jenna and me to have baby girls together. The Lord was, as always, gracious in His exquisite planning, as we have become so much closer through the experience of mothering alongside each other. Though our mothering styles are very different in many ways, the ferocious love that we share for these sweet ones overcomes any disparity.

When we walked into Jenna and Matt's home, Sophie, who was sitting on Pop's lap, immediately honed her big blue eyes in on Susannah. She promptly began squealing and kicking her legs, as she simply could not contain the excitement that was threatening to overtake her entire being! Every ounce of her seemed to announce, "A new toy for me! A new toy for me! Lemme at her! Lemme at her!" As we placed the girls near each other, we all delighted in the moments they shared...

Susannah and Sophie sitting with Grammy and Pop

(You will now begin to notice a theme in the following pictures...)

Sophie grabs at Susannah

Sophie grabs at Susannah

Sophie grabs at Susannah

Again, Sophie grabs at Susannah

I repeat, Sophie grabs at Susannah

(I'm not even going to caption this one...)

After dinner in Richmond on Friday night, we drove to Colonial Heights to stay with Grammy and Pop for the weekend. Susannah loved being showered with attention by Mama's cousin Lisette, who was visiting from New Jersey. We are so glad that she was able to spend Saturday and Sunday with us, as she hasn't seen Susannah since late July when our family traveled to NJ. The two had a wonderful time getting to know each other!

Pretty, pretty girls :)

Vegging on Grammy and Pop's new sunporch

(I just have to make special note that Susannah is wearing GREEN!!! Let this go on record...)

One final picture of our impromptu "Girls' Weekend" before heading home...

Special moments with my Grammy...

Grammy loves to give me kitchen sink baths, and I love to take them! This works out beautifully so that Mama can get a few extra zzzzzz's (when she doesn't decide that she needs to pop out of bed in order to take pictures of the whole experience!). I don't know which part of our Strawberry is bigger--her belly or her cheeks!!!! And who wants to just JUMP THROUGH their computer screen in order to plant kissies all over our dumplin'? Good thing she's in the next room, because I "itch" with needing snuggles every time I see her picture! Addiction takes many forms, I guess... :)

A quiet moment together with my Grammy looking at God's creation through their bay window...

Our Strawberry at Four Months!

Our babydoll is already four-and-a-half months old! I am a bit behind with this monthly update, and have decided to do a picture narrative of all the changes we've seen in our sweet girl over the past six weeks. We are amazed at how quickly this precious one grows...and simply DELIGHT in watching her become more and more of a little person with each passing day. We wonder what we ever did without her, our gorgeous source of constant JOY! Oh, how grateful we are for Susannah...

Enjoy the [always excessive] pictures and captions below!

Our best "talks" happen on the changing table. Susannah LOVES playing with her voice, and will talk and talk and TALK some more, both alone and especially when she has the audience of Mama or Daddy. We affectionately call her our "Baby Pterodactyl" as she squawks and chirps with jubilance! (Close your eyes and use your "mind's ear" to conjure up the sounds that a strangled duck might make, and you have a shockingly close replica of our cherubic Susannah's voice!)

One night a few weeks ago, she had a painful gas bubble in her tummy. She cried and writhed on her changing table while Daddy massaged her teeny body and Mama tried to comfort her with gentle words, songs, and touches. Finally, she was able to have what was for her a life-changing poop. Her diaper loaded and tummy at peace, she gave us one of her classic sparkly, gummy Susannah smiles, and then proceeded to talk for the next twenty minutes with intense emotion about the whole excruciating ordeal!

We have really been focusing more intentionally on signing (without voice) at certain points of the day, too, and she watches with rapt attention as our hands move and our facial expressions change to match what we are signing.

This is a picture of Susannah during "Nakey Kicky Time," which she has at least twice a day. She is incredibly focused during this time...so intent on her flinging her legs and thumping her feet, in fact, that she can do no more than stare straight ahead and make very serious facial expressions while engaging in this very effective form of baby exercise.

Such a strong girl we have! She has had her warm bath and lotion time, and is now in her jammies and ready to have her milk before tucking it into her "Velcro-laden straightjacket" (ie--swaddle) for the night!

Our girl is touching and grabbing whatever she can now! These flowers were left after Susannah and I hostessed a baby shower in our home for sweet Mama-to-be Melissa down the street. Susannah's new little friend Judah Seth Hankee was born on October 7, and we got to visit him in the hospital! Because he was born in the same hospital as Susannah, we saw a few of our nurses and the lactation consultant while we were there. Mama demonstrated for Roxanne (the lactation specialist) how Susannah--the baby who refused to latch onto the breast in those early days--NOW approaches the breast: hands out, lips rounded, eyes crossed, nose "shnarfing" (breathing with gusto!).

This is sweet, SWEET Miranda from our church. She came with her mama Stephanie to the baby shower at our house and held Susannah. Miranda and her family prayed and prayed that God would give us a baby...and He did! We are so thankful for the loving support and generosity the Walters family showed ours during our time of heartache and waiting for a child of our own.

Two other babies from our church came to the shower, as well. Sutton (left) with her second baby girl, Skylar (born mid-August), and Kate (right) with her first little girl, Elena (born May 3), posed for a picture with Susannah and me. We are hoping to get a picture of all FIVE of the baby girls born in our small congretation since May! Babies Adelaide and Samantha are the other two not pictured here. We all end up in the nursing room together on Sunday mornings either feeding or shushing our precious baby girls while encouraging one another to become Godly mamas. Such a FUN BLESSING it is to have so many friends for Susannah Joy already :).

The three baby girls (from left to right): Elena, Skylar, and Susannah

REACHING AND GRABBING!!!! At around the middle of month three, Susannah began to notice her hands and use them, with much concentration, to reach for the ladybug and chickie on her "floor gym." Harry and I watched in absolute awe as she quickly became more confident and adept at reaching and swatting, and then as she began to actually grab these dangling toys and just about anything of interest within her reach!

Our Strawberry will spend up to thirty minutes on her floor gym reaching, swatting, and grabbing these and other toys while kicking her legs and turning to look in the mirror next to her.

Grabbing and studying the jingly ladybug!

Susannah quickly and easily rolls from her tummy to her back; however, she can't quite figure out what to do with her arm nearest the floor when attempting to roll from back to front. She remains undaunted by getting stuck on her side...she simply grabs a nearby toy and pulls it straight to her mouth for some very fulfilling sucking time!

Stuck on her side while attempting to roll from back to front...

If there are no toys to grab while I am on my side, I will simply play with my incredibly interesting fingers!

And I'll also talk to them in my squawky pterodactyl voice (largely because I am not sure how to get myself back onto my back!).

Susannah LOVES her new Exersaucer, and though she is a little wobbly in it still, a hand towel rolled and shoved in behind her keeps her little body stable. When she is not bobbing around in the seat, she is much more able to reach for the farm-themed toys attached all around the tray of this great baby-holder.

Such a cute picture of our cherub having her tummy time!

Everything that I grab goes straight to my mouth for some good, good sucking and gumming!

This is our 96-year-old neighbor, Ruby Lawson, who simply ADORES Susannah's visits! Mama and Susannah walk up to Mrs. Lawson's house about once a week or so in order to bring her sweet homemade treats and let her hold and talk to our precious one. Mrs. Lawson has been a widow for 35 years and was never able to have children of her own. Though she has full-time care from various hired women and nurses, she becomes very lonely and anticipates our visits with such excitement. Her face simply lights up when she sees Susannah, so we make her visits a priority! Susannah already has her own "little ministry" to "the least of these"... We pray that we can continue to live in obedience to God's Word, which says in James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..."

A play date with the big girls! Jessie Gilmartin, Mama's friend since fourth grade who now lives about twenty minutes away with her husband and three little children, came for a visit on Tuesday morning several weeks ago. Madison (left, age 3 and 1/2) and Becca (right, age 2 and a half) loved playing with Susannah. They were so very gentle and kind with her, and she enjoyed watching these "very big" girls talk and move about!

Showing Madi and Becca how I can grab and chew everything in sight...

Madi was such a big helper! Not only did she hand Susannah toys and talk to her on the floor gym, she also proudly held Susannah, who is for Madi a "living baby doll"!

Becca was fascinated with Susannah's teeny fingers, and explored them while Susannah hung out.

Jessie and her third child, Andrew Ryan. Andrew, who just turned one, is quite the mover! The moment his mama put him down on the floor, he crawled straight for Rylie's food dish...stuffing a handful of kibble into his mouth before either of us could stop him! Nothing beats digging saliva-coated Purina from within a toddler's jaws...

My new favorite picture of our bright-eyed beauty! She was on her way to bed for a nap when this was taken. Does she look ready to sleep to you?!

Just took a few minutes of love and cuddles with Daddy and she was ready to go into her crib, where she always spends a few minutes squawking happily before drifting off to sleep...

Dancing with my Daddy... (Mama's other new favorite shot!)

Mama and Susannah on the front porch before heading to a delicious dinner at Gene, Julie, and Abbey Lancaster's home.

A family from our church gave Susannah this red-haired rag doll in celebration of her birth. It is one of my [many] favorite things that she received! Sparked by my friend Kara's idea to measure her baby against a long stuffed monkey, I have decided that I will start doing monthly shots of Susannah with her red-haired rag doll. (The doll needs a name. Any ideas?)

When we were finished measuring Susannah, she wanted to play a bit with her dolly...

...so she grabbed it by the hair and wrestled it straight into her mouth! I have a sneaky feeling that this doll is going to get quite a bit of this kind of treatment over the next few months until Susannah starts recognizing her as a little girl and not a teether! (Luckily, our Strawberry isn't that strong yet, so she can't hurt the doll. She loves to look at it and even squawk at it in her best pterodactyl voice!)

Perhaps the biggest transition that Susannah has undergone in the past two weeks is her transition out of her bassinet and into her big-girl crib! We visited Grammy and Pop (my parents) in Colonial Heights for my birthday weekend, and she slept in their big-girl crib. Because our little ray of sunshine was about to outgrow her teeny-baby bed (see above!), we decided just to stick her straight into the crib when we got home. The transition has gone beautifully for Susannah...but has been a bit hard on Mama's heart! (will post a picture sometime of her in her crib...)

One of these days I will actually grow into these cheeks...

Sitting with my Pop on their new sunporch watchin' a football game. Go Gators!

Talking with my Grammy, who makes me smile heaps and HEAPS!!! She knows my "sparkle button" and presses it lots!

Mama thought I looked soooooooo incredibly cute in this red polka-dotty sunsuit, and I think she's right! We got a warm streak in the weather despite it being mid-October, and Mama pulled out a few sunsuits that didn't fit at the end of summer. She thought this was pretty exciting, because she sees me as her babydoll.

The angle on this sweet picture is just perfect for highlighting those scrumptious cheeks and rosebud mouth...

(Susannah is wearing MY bonnet from when I was a baby girl thirty years ago!)

Can you tell we ADORE this baby??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not a MOMENT goes by when we are not exceedingly grateful for God's mercy in sharing her with us...

Coming soon: Our Visit with [Great] Aunt Holly!