A Week of "Firsts"

Merry Christmas! What an incredible Christmas week for us (key word being week, not day!). On friday i took Maizy to the doctor because all she ate was 4 ounces by noon, and normally she has 12 at that point in time, plus fruits and veggies. She's had a cough for about a week and a half, and i was starting to get worried once she wasn't eating. So i took her in and her doctor said she has croup and bronchitis : ( But, thankfully her medicine brought her appetite back and she's Maizy again. The hard thing is that she never seemed sick, and i don't want to be one of "those parents" who rush to the doctor over a sniffle. But the doc reassured me and said he was glad i listened to my intuition about her because her cold was beginning to settle in her chest and could lead to pneumonia had it not been addressed. He also said that in the next day or two her tooth would pop. Boy was he right!! By 8 that night, she had not one but two teeth completely surface and they are sharp little daggers!!

Once we got Maizy taken care of, we headed out that evening to Iowa for Christmas at the Good's, but turned around once we hit Lake Geneva-the fog was so thick we couldn't see more than 15 yards in front of us, and it was rather scary. Early the next morning we hit the road and finally made it to Iowa. We had a great time at Maizy's grandparents. Her Aunt Debbie even made it home for Christmas! The two had a blast together-Maizy loves having the attention paid to her, and Aunt Debbie loves just chatting away and having someone (anyone!) listen-so we put Maizy in her jumper and wheeled Debbie over by her. The two had the best of time-Maizy had all the attention in the world while Debbie had the best listener. Maizy ended up jumping herself to sleep!! Tons of gifts were exchanged amidst an incredible snow and ice storm that hunkered us inside for a few days. The car was totally iced over and we couldn't get out of the house!! Grama and Grampa Good spoiled us and we had such a great time with them.

Christmas Eve we headed back home, and were able to make it to church and then off to the Lechner's house for dinner. We haven't been able to spend Christmas with the Lechner side for a few years now, and it was such a treat that we could. Maizy was passed around and loved up by her cousin's and great-Aunt's and great-Uncle's. Even though Grama and Grampa Lechner are in heaven, it's a blessing that we are able to come together still as a family with the same love for each other.

Christmas day was a long one! We had fun opening gifts just the three of us at home in the morning. Matt and i agreed we weren't going to get Maizy gifts this year because we knew she'd already be getting spoiled as it was, plus we'd like to save up for next year when she kind of understands what really is going on. Well, Maizy has her daddy wrapped around those little fingers and he surprised her with bunny slippers that she can't get enough of. Plus, he bought her a pink sweatsuit with matching pink and silver tennis shoes!! Daddy's little girl for sure!!

After the morning at home, we headed over to Nana and Bomps for quiche and presents with Drew, Bekah and Great Auntie Jane and Great Uncle Phil, and then to grama kim and grampa ralph's for more Christmas. That evening, more family came over to celebrate over a ham and turkey dinner. There was so much that went on, and so many gracious gifts!!!

Not only did Maizy get her two front teeth for Christmas and the croup and bronchitis, but she started waving hi and bye regularly, and says momma non-stop (especially when she's frustrated!). This was a big week of first for us, but i'd have to say the wave was my fav.

Now that Christmas is over, it's off to Daddy Day Care for this week and next-lucky girl!! I wonder what daddy's little girl willl have him buying/doing by the end of Christmas break-i got him on camera admitting he almost bought her leopard print shoes!! Crazy how a baby changes you!!

Blessings!!

Smiley

Check out the sweater Maizy is wearing-isn't it gorgeous? Her Grama Good made it for her!! Can you believe that?!

Well, it's official-Maizy is sitting completely by herself and not wobbly anymore. She's getting ready to crawl too! Maizy's not up on her hands and knees rocking yet, but she's trying to push off the ground with her toes and gets frustrated when she can't move to get something that's out of reach the she wants. It's so fun to see her progress in all the things she can do. She's eating everything now too-all sorts of nummy baby food, and she's starting to eat little finger food baby crackers. Stop growing up!!! Maizy is an absolute delight-smiles, and personality galore. She definately will let you know when she wants to do something different or is done eating. Everything is so entertaining to us.

This past weekend Maizy and i went to Iowa to see a concert with her great auntie jane, great uncle phil, and cousins drew and bekah. Grama Good came up saturday morning to love up Maizy and it was so great. The weather for the concert stopped us from going-raining, but was 14 degrees! We slid through an intersection, and three cars in front of us on the freeway slipped right off the road. So the next night, John Waller (the concert we were going to) held a concert at Auntie's friend Kate's house, and there was about thirty of us sitting around her family room while he gave us an intimate acoustic concert in front of the fireplace and christmas tree. It was so spirit-filled and incredibly moving. Maizy continued to show us her heart for praising and worshiping Jesus by how enthralled she was with it-she stayed awake for the whole performance (of course, she doesn't want to miss a thing!). The most incredible baby-perfect i should say. All in all, the weekend was incredible, and Maizy was great in the car too (thank God!).

Maizy's great grama and great grampa called us up last night last minute to meet them out for dinner because they were going through Maizy withdrawl. What a blessing for us to be able to jump in the car and spend the evening with them! And Maizy hammed it up and put on a show for them too, and they ate her up!! We love getting to spend so much time with Nans and Bomps.

Blessings to you all!!

Thanksgiving

Well, Thanksgiving was a bit of a bust. Between all of us eventually getting the 24 hour puking flu, we eventually made it to the Allen's for Thanksgiving. We had a blast celebrating Maizy's first Thanksgiving, spending time together with all of the Allen's now that Drew is back from his semester in China, celebrating Bompie's birthday, great shopping, making jewelry, and of course being with all of our family, even the Good's made it up!




All of the cousin's



Maizy, Bekah, Bompie and Java snuggling up in the sunroom




Maizy and Bekah (our new babysitter-wherever one was, so was the other!)


The girls' reading a bedtime story


Bedtime bottle with nanie's princess #3

Aunt Debby

Meeting Aunt Debby for the first time


Hugs and kisses from Maizy's Auntie


The Good Family photo


Loved up by Grama and Grampa Good

Grama and Grampa Good

As i mentioned in the last email, Maizy has cut her first tooth. I know, already?! It seems too soon, but i saw the little guy popping up about 1 1/2 weeks ago-i thought it was her rice cereal sitting on her bottom gum. Tried wiping it away, and then the fear took over-tooth time has begun. And what, only like 20 more to come? Oy! But, it totally explained her behavior-fussy and a little warm too. We were doing really good for sleeping through the night, and then the tooth destroyed that. We also had cut out her evening nap to get her to bed earlier, but she'd wake up hungry. I just got so confused on what to do. Here for the past 5 months we had our rhythm down with Maizy, and then in a few days it flipped again. We're not supposed to go get her in the night when she's crying so she can soothe herself back to sleep, and not to feed her because she'll wake up the next night to feed again. We made that mistake and took a few nights to get back to sleeping through again. Now we brought back the evening nap because she'd wake up at 11 hungry, and then at 4 hungry, and wouldn't eat again until noon. So we realized that she could go for a long period of time at night without eating, and that we just need to fill her up as much as possible in the day.
When it seemed we were at our wits end, Grama and Grampa Good came up for the weekend. We were worried that they'd be awake all night with us, so they offered to stay at a hotel. Well, they might as well have stayed with us. The moment they came into town, Maizy hit the charm switch and the old loveable perfect baby returned!! Like Grama Ginny said, all she needed was a little Grama time to get her back to Maizy again (and to that i asked, when are you going to move here?!?!). We had a great time with Matt's parents, and realized just how blessed we are to have them as parents. Of course they ate her up to pieces-Grampa Ron would just look at Maizy and she couldn't do anything but just smile! Grama Ginny had Maizy talking all weekend and spoiled her with new clothes. Maizy even learned to play dominoes with us, our favorite thing to do together. We started green beans this weekend, and she is eating them up great (she'd better too-i made a bunch of it for her!). About a month ago, she really found her voice. This past week, she has found the tonal ranges of it and tries to scream but makes it raspy and squealy and is hilarious to listen to! This weekend is huge for us-Maizy gets to meet her Aunt Debbie for the first time when we go to Illinois for her Thanksgiving, and then we'll head to Iowa for turkey day next week.

Hope all is well. Blessings!!

Chompie!!

Hi all!! It's been a while, but rightfully so-we have a tooth amongst us!! So Maizy has been a little, well, not as perfect baby as normal. I'll brief you all a little more on what's going on with her in the next blog, but in the meantime, enjoy these pix. Here is Maizy with Uncle Lukie, and posing as a poster girl on his camero, taking a nap with daddy, and showing us her sitting abilities.

Blessings to you all!!

Little Swimmer

What a weekend! Maizy had her first over-nighter! We spent the night at the Osthoff Resort and Spa in Elkhart Lake on Thursday. My mom had a conference there and rented a suite for us to join her and my dad for the night. We left after football practice and realized all of the stuff that we packed was more for Maizy than for us. When we arrived, my mom was still in her conference, and my dad decided to go check out a local church in the area-my grama's father was a preacher at a church there. My dad met up with a congregant he'd called up earlier in the day. She had graciously put together a packet of info on my great grampa and his church, along with pictures of him and my great grama with church members. When my dad went up there, choir practice was going on. The congregant introduced my dad to the choir as Reverend Selmekeit's grandson, and some of the choir members had been confirmed by my great grampa and had heard him preach-how neat-living history! The church is known as the Rooster church because of a rooster weather vane that sits atop the church. My grama was a huge rooster memorabilia collector, so it was a total god thing to hear that her own dad's church was known as the rooster church.

So while my parents were off doing there thing, the Good's decided to make it family swim night. Except Maizy wasn't really haven't it. So we already had our swimsuits on, and our suite had an enormous whirlpool tub, so we took a Good family bath together! What a riot! Maizy loved it, and as cramped as the tub was, the jets and bubbles were actually relaxing. We crashed good that night in our king sized bed-matt and i had our own zip codes!

The next morning grampa ralph had to head back to milwaukee for work, and grama kim had to go to her conference. So, we attempted swim time again. This time, we really did it. The water was a little chilly, and i think i was the more apprehensive one in the water than Maizy! At first she did a little startle and held her breath a bit, but then she just floated along in my arms. She splished and splashed her arms tons. We swam forever! Matt thought she'd like the hot tub. Guess again. Back to the pool!!

Maizy has been vocal for a while, but she has really found the power of her voice. She started really "talking" on Thursday, and literally, she hasn't stopped since then. Non-stop chattering. (Hm. Wonder where she gets that from?!) It's a riot. We were driving around on friday, and she'd started talking, and i'd mimic the noise and talk back to her. This is pretty typical of our car rides, but this time, she just started cracking up! She was laughing at herself, just laughing! So of course, we're laughing but trying not to so we don't startle her so we can keep hearing her laugh.

Saturday Matt had his huge football game. They played against New Berlin, the number 1 seed in their division, the team they had their only loss to this season (by one point), and they CRUSHED their opponent!!! It was 48-0!!!! We are so thrilled! THis is the first time in Brown Deer's school history that the football team has made it this far in play-offs. They usually make it to second round games, but they've never won it. We say this is the year they've broken the "nevers". His football team never won against 2 specific teams, and this year they did. Same with the second round playoff game, and they did. So, as much as i'm ready for football season to be over and to have a normal life again, i'm glad Matt and his team have rocked and are continuing on their journey. If anyone wants to come to the quarter-final game, it's a home one at Brown Deer Saturday at 3.

Blessings!!!

Happy 75th Birthday Nana!!

It was family bonanza this weekend! Friday morning Maizy's (great) aunt Jane and (great) uncle Phil and her (2nd) cousin Bekah came up for the weekend to celebrate Great Grama Judy's 75th birthday. The Allen's first stop was our house to love up Maizy with kisses, cuddles and baby clothes galore! Bekah is so good with Maizy-i need to hire her to be my helper!! She even changed diapers!

After spending our morning together, we met up with Great Grama and Grampa for our standing friday lunch date at Ted's diner. This week were so happy to be joined by the Allen's. Maizy was a trooper shopping with us for the afternoon and then out to dinner for a Friday Fish Fry with my parents, Great Aunt Claudia, Uncle Luke, the Allen's and Great grama and grampa.

Saturday we all went out to breakfast together, but had a very special afternoon. Great Grama, Grama Kim, Great Aunt Jane, Maizy, Bekah and I had our portraits taken to commemorate four generations of us women for Great Grama's 75th birthday. I'm such a sap- i had tears the whole time! That evening we all regrouped as a family and had dinner at the Capital Grille downtown, where Maizy's 3rd cousin, Judy Anne and her husband Jim, joined us and met her for the first time-even more tears! Dinner was fantastic, and as i looked around at each member sitting at the table smiling and laughing and enjoying each other, i am reminded again of how blessed i am to have such a tight knit family that loves the Lord and each other so much. So happy 75th birthday Nana!! We love you!!

Nummies

Maizy hit another milestone today-she ate her first solids, rice cereal. I don't know why i was so nervous about her eating it though. Probably because we have her eating routine established, and we're in a rythm when she does it. Things are good, and now we have to go and throw a wrench in our system because Maizy needs to keep growing (by the way, who said she could grow up so quick?!). Or, my nervousness came from the fact that every mom i've talked to has introduced solids with different techniques-ie, with milk, or water or formula; at dinner, or lunch or breakfast; once a day versus twice a day right away. Et cetera, and so on. Plus, now Maizy is her first step away from not depending on me-she's getting food from another source now. Yes, there are plenty of things she is totally dependent on me for, but it's starting now.
Maizy did great eating though. Matt wanted to feed her the cereal, and i gladly snapped pix and videoed. I was expecting her to either A) have it dribble right out of her mouth because she's not used to something being fed to her or B) make icky faces and spit it out due to a totally new texture. Well, once again, my child surprised me. She took it like a pro! First bite was good, and she opened her mouth right back up for another bite. Same thing with the next one, and the next one. Slowly, but surely, the dribble began, her nostrils began to flare and her face got this look of "what the heck is this crap?" and the spitting it out ensued. All in all, we had ten bites down. Then we realized, how do we know when she is full? I mean, she can't tell us, and we don't want to just shove it down her if she's going to puke the excess. So, when all else fails, i ran over to the neighbors house while matt was still feeding her. They are pros with a 2 1/2 and an 8 month old. They told me know more than 3 bites, or no more than a tablespoon, otherwise it will cause havoc on her digestive tract. Well then i'm realizing we've been just giving Maizy bite after bite, and Matt's at home still feeding her and who knows how much she's had at this point and oh my goodness!!! So i ran back home, measured out how many ten spoonfuls that we fed her measured up to and thankfully we were at a tablespoon. so hopefully, we're in the safe zone!! And you'd think the girl would sleep better due to cereal in her tummy. No. She didn't take her usual evening snooze, and was up until 845. Oy!! Too much excitement!!

Blessings!!! (ps-if you click on the image, it will open larger in another window)

13 lbs, 24 inches

Sorry it's been a bit since i last wrote you. Maizy had her 4 month check up, and she's now 13 pounds, 24 inches! So big. Her shots were on friday, and she was a trooper for them (i plugged my ears and turned away). We were able to go to Matt's homecoming game with our friends Nick and Erin, and watch Brown Deer win. Saturday came, and so did the ramifications of the shots. Saturday, Sunday and Monday Maizy had a fever, the sweats, poopy diapers and was so listless. It was hard to see our happy, active baby so blah. Considering she's been a perfect baby (thus far, knock on wood!), we figured it was okay to just baby her completely during her sick days and just coddle her. This weekend was big for Maizy-it was her first encounter with Matt's hunting bonanza with his Iowa buddies. While the guys hunted, we played! Maizy shopped till we both dropped on saturday, and sunday we had church. I just can't believe how great of a shopper she is!! Oh, i forgot the biggest news yet- the day after my birthday, Maizy rolled from her back to her belly!! All of her grunting and to get past her arm and roll payed off. Now that's all she wants to do! Lay her on the changing table, and she rolls right over, that little stinker!! Then when we use the nose booger sucker up thing, she rolls right over then too and little battle of the will ensues. Thus, it begins! She's trying to sit up as well-slow down, one thing at a time little one!! My heart can only handle so much growing up at once! Enjoy the pix of her-trying to sit up, and our little thumb sucker.

Blessings!!

Harvest!

Autumn is here! We decided to hit up a pumpkin farm on Saturday, a rare warm day for this time of year, and we thought we'd take advantage of that. We bought a little Maizy pumpkin to display on hay bales with Indian corn and gords. I can't believe a new season is already among us that Maizy is apart of! She's become pretty vocal lately-no clue where she gets it from! Here's a pic of Matt and Maizy talking back and forth with each other. She gets a stitch out of us repeating what she says, and you can see the anticipation in her eyes for us to talk back to her when she talks. Her new thing is humming-she purses her lips tights, but just makes tons of sounds. If she had her mouth open, i swear it would be a scream, thank goodness it isn't! We're still working on the rolling over thing though-Maizy really wants to go from her back to her belly, and just grunts when she gets stuck on her arm. She hasn't figured out how to maneuver around it. Soon enough. Maizy has also become quite fond of herself. When we are in front of the mirror, she just giggles at herself!!
Maizy did great at Matt's huge victory football game on Friday. They beat their arch nemesis, Pewaukee, with an on-side kick and a 2 point conversion in the last 2 minutes of the game and it was exhilarating to watch and experience. This was the team that hosed them out of state playoffs for the past two years, so victory was very sweet! This week is homecoming, and we're excited for another win under the Brown Deer belt.
Blessings to you all! We'll let you know how her 4 month check up goes on Friday.

Rollie Pollie

Maizy is great-our little peanut is now 17 weeks today. she found her toes and is always grabbing at them. when we come get her in the morning her feet are up in the air and she's trying to get them. too silly.she can't get them to her mouth yet and it frustrates her. she's trying to roll from her back to her belly (she can do the opposite), and she grunts when she gets on her side because she can't get all the way over yet. She fits in her exersaucer now, and is enthralled with all of the activities on it, and smiles and talks to this one smiley sunflower toy on it. I'm beginning to think she likes the toys better than her parents now.

Things are just crazy busy here still. we went to matt's football game on friday and it was craziness there. they played against new berlin. to preface, the week before new berline and pewaukee played, a pewaukee player head butted the head new berlin coach with this helmet on, and the coach pushed him down, so the coach is suspended for two games (the player has no penalties of course, and they even tried to file a law suit against the coach for pushing him, even though he head butted the guy!). so, we played new berlin the first week of the coaches suspension and the team definately had something to prove. It was a sold out, jam packed home game. we were smooshed in the stands. i left at the middle of the 3rd quarter, when new berlin was winning 21-0. maizy needed to feed, and i didn't want to see the monstrasity that was unfolding on the field-i'd get to hear about it at home anyways. Maizy was a riot though. when the crowd would cheer, she would sort of scream along with them. at first it was sooo super cute, but then i think she got scared, so that's anaother reason why we left. so i get to the jeep, packed her up and hopped into my seat, and it started pouring! there was nothing in the weather report for rain either. but it had been lightening all through the game and they never cancelled it which was totally weird. i was so glad maizy and i had left when we did b/c i'd have to run in the rain with her, and then deal with traffic in the parking lot. so we left just in time. well, come to find out, matt's team pulled up in the 4th quarter, tied it and they went into overtime!! even thought they lost 29-28, they kicked butt!! now that's what friday night football is all about! we're preparing for this friday's game, against their nemesis-Pewaukee.

On Sunday, Maizy's 2nd cousin, Christine had a jewelry party that we went to, and we were able to hang out with her Great Aunt Claudia and Great Aunt Susan (so weird for me to call the Great Aunt-they are too young for that!), and her 2nd cousin Liz. It was so good for us "Lechner" women to be together again-it's been a while, and we loved being with them. Great Aunt Susan had Maizy just talking and talking, and Great Aunt Claudia had Maizy all cuddled up and smiley. Chris is a natural with Maizy, and Liz was already prepping her to be head captain of the cheerleading squad.

We'll let you know how the game goes; next week Maizy has her 4 month check up!!

Blessings!!

Ballet and Tricks

Saturday Matt brought Maizy up by us in bed and was trying to convince me that she can roll over. So he layed Maizy on her belly and she rolled to her back. Well, she can't be doing that yet. She's still a newbie-they can't do tricks yet! It just must be that she was on a soft mattress which caused her to roll. So Matt put her back on her belly, and she rolled again. I rationalized that it must be the fact that there are divets in the bed from our bodies, and it was enabling her to roll. So Matt layed Maizy on our floor and over she went! And then she did it again! This is too much too soon!! So we are now officially having to start watching her like a hawk-no more quick walk aways to get the phone or change the laundry. I just can't believe that she's rolling over. It's amazing to me, trying to process that this little person was just born and she has done so much in her short little life thus far. God is so incredible with His creations! Here's a pic of her in position to roll over-she tries to alot on her changing table, but knocks her noggin' on it, and keeps wanting to roll. Yesterday we put her tights on under her dress for church, and pulled out the tutu that grama good gave her and couldn't resist! It's like going to the circus with her-she has a tutu and does tricks!!

Blessings to you all!!!

Maizy's portraits

Are these too cute or what?!

Last Saturday Matt and i tried to have her pictures taken, but she was not having it. So this friday, on my day off, as soon as she woke up and ate, we headed out the door and had them taken. It was a ball! The little diva loves her pictures being taken, and knows totally when a camera is on her. We were there for two hours just shooting pics! Not a single fuss or tear. The hardest part was selecting which ones (and of course, i'm a sucker for them all, no self control!).

It has been a crazy, crazy week for us. Matt and i both started back full time, and Maizy started daycare. We're very fortuante that she is spending her days with a very loving, christian woman's in-home daycare. It's been great for Maizy so far. Apparently, she a little socialite and loves the other kids there. She will only take a 45 minute nap in the morning and in the afternoon because she's afraid she'll miss something (i wonder where she gets it from?!). But, it has helped us because she's been sleeping through the night this week for us. In fact, when i had off on friday (i'm working monday through thursdays), she was so tuckered out from her week that she slept 12.5 hours, and didn't get up until 930, fell asleep about noon until 3, fed, and then went back to sleep for another hour and proceeded to have another night of not waking up!! We should've done daycare long ago if it entailed undisturbed sleep!!

It is very difficult for me to be away from her for such a long period of time during the day. I do good until about 2, and then i get bummed. please pray for me and my bosses this week. i'm working up the courage to ask them if i can shorten my work day, and have it end at 3, versus 430. it's just so exhausting-it takes 40 minutes for me to get her due to rush hour, and we don't get home until almost 530-so she's at daycare from 730ish to 515-a super long day for her, and i'm not a fan of that at all. by the time dinner is made and matt gets home, its 7, and then we try to straighten up the house a bit, and spend as much time playing with Maizy as possible until she crashes at about 9. I kind of feel like we are going through the motions right now, and that there is no emotion to it all, rather robotic. i just don't know how full-time careers and full-time parents coexist in perfect harmony. but then again, if it does, let me know!! At any rate, i'm nervous about approaching my bosses this week-i don't want to push it with them, but i don't want to keep this up either. Please pray for encouragement/confidence for me and the right words to use, but mostly that they are receptive and totally willing to work with my request.

as for matt, his team is 3-0, with a 38-0 win on friday! another conference championship season is brewing! he's got a crazy schedule too, just go go go during his day with minimal down time. already on his first day of class he had a puker-welcome to a new school year! Right now i hear him sweetly talking to maizy, getting her bath ready for her (so i can be done during halftime of the iowa game-she's not aloud to miss one).

Let us know if you want any of her pix-i can email you the high resolution file. Blessings on you all!!

Fashionably Victorious

Melt my heart! Great Grama and Grampa are helping Maizy strike it rich with her new little piggy bank. But it's not your average piggy bank-it's a designer-esque purse with a handle and gems! Starting to save up for her purse collection now!How cute is that?!

Speaking of cute, we have our very own princess and the pea. She sleeps great in her crib at night, but the minute we put her in the crib for her daytime naps, she wakes up. She just does not like it during the day. So i layed her in our guest room bed and propped pillows around her to mimic our body being next to her (the only way she naps during the day, by the way, of course). She is swallowed alive by the double bed! What a little princess-her crib is not good enough, but the egyptian cotton sheets are what's acceptable to her.

Our friday night football game was rained out and postponed to saturday, and it was worth it. Gorgeous weather, and a huge victory. Matt was the offensive line coach for the game, and they whooped it up with a 40-7 victory!! We were so excited. Every time there was a touchdown (tons of them too), i'd jump up and cheer with her in her little papoose, and she slept through it all during the first half! I don't get it-step on a floor board wrong in the house and she wakes up, put her in a cheering crowd and she sleeps! Two other coaches had babies during the off season, so we all had our first football games together and had our pictures taken to commemorate the babies big day. Maizy was a hit with the player's parents, that's for sure! The 40-7 victory was an awesome start to Matt's football season, and Maizy can't wait to cheer her daddy on some more!

Blessings!