Happy Birthday Beautiful.

Happy Birthday Princess!  We can't believe that you've been in our arms for two years.  We are so blessed.

 
We still check you every night before I go to bed, just to make sure you're still breathing.

We still keep you rear facing in the car to keep you as safe as possible.

But despite being overprotective, we still let you fall.

We let you learn new things, often by trial & error.

We're not perfect, but we do love having you in our family!

And we love you.  So very much.

Us lately.

I haven't written about us lately.  2013 was a pretty stellar year.  I had high hopes for it, to be honest.  13 is, after all, my favorite number.  It's my number.  I mean, it pretty much has a responsibility to me.  :)

And it didn't disappoint.  I finally got out of the new mom fog that lasted for, oh, 18 months.  I don't mean to lessen anyone else's postpartum experience, but it was really rough.  I spent most of 2012 trying to breastfeed and well, it wasn't one bit easy for my body.  I was on medication to make it easier & that just left me in a huge mess of nerves & emotions non-stop.  After getting off that medicine, it took about 9 months to get my body back to feeling normal.  Normal is good in this situation!

But that was 2012.  2013 was the year I came out of that fog & really started to enjoy life again.  Our photography business continued to grow, and the cinematography side just blossomed!  Josh had 3 or 4 weddings that were 3+ hours away!  Not an intentional direction for us, but a fun one to navigate.  Haven't seen his films?  Check them out here!

No plans for more kids anytime soon.  Yes, we plan to have more, but no, not right now.  Maybe 2014.  Maybe 2018.  We started thinking a little more seriously this past year about adopting as well.  It is something we have always said we wanted to do, but didn't have an exact plan for it.  Some of our friends are going through the adoption process right now & it's such a beautiful thing.  We love hearing their updates & following their journey.  It's also probably not something we're going to do in 2014, but the bud is starting to blossom.

Also, you shouldn't take any timelines I say into account.  In true Fowler fashion, we do what we want when we want to do it.  If you'd asked me a year ago, I would have said we would definitely not be buying a house in 2013.  And yet, here we are... we bought a house.  We think about things for a long time with no timeline in mind and then one day we just up & do it.

Our plans for 2014?  Enjoy life.  We are at such a fun stage in life, and we just want to soak up every second of it.  We hear that pitter patter of little feet that all the songs talk about, so we're just going to enjoy it.  We are making a house into our home.  We have a backyard.  Heck, our kid even has a tricycle.  This is the life. 

And yes, I tend to say that about life no matter whether we own a house or live in a tiny apartment behind Roses, 8 hour away from our family.  Why?  Because our blessings are just huge, y'all.  If we're constantly looking at the next big thing then we miss what we have.  And what we have is rich.  It's the good stuff.

My Husband is a Rock Star (in more ways than one).

Nearly 10 years ago my mom sat next to my new boyfriend in my high school auditorium.  It was the spring choral concert & she decided to make polite small talk in an effort to get to know this new city boy that I was dating.

(I know, for those of you that know my husband now, thinking of him as a city boy is quite laughable.  I promise, he hasn't changed, but for where I grew up, he's considered a city boy.  I digress... back to the story.)

Her: "So what do you want to do with your life?"

Him: "Oh, I'm going to be a musician."

Yes, my mom had to sit there & play nice & not laugh at this new boyfriend who was 'going to be a musician.'  It's what every mother wants to hear, right?

She swears that she didn't doubt him, but c'mon.  How could you not?  I mean, I'm fairly certain that I doubted, too.

Time passed & he continued to play more & more music.  After we got married there was an unofficial rule that he could do whatever he wanted so long as there was family time & a full time paycheck coming in.  And that's what he did.  He worked his butt off to not only make music a priority, but also to make that an income.

Being a full time musician doesn't mean that you're always playing on stage for thousands of people.  Sometimes it does, but most of the time it means a lot of other work, too.  Lawyers don't just show up in court, they have behind the scenes work to do.

So for most of our married life, Josh has been a worship leader.  Sometimes at one church where he also does music arranging & other related duties, sometimes it was for-hire work week by week.  And for awhile he even played with Richie McDonald (remember that little band Lonestar?  Josh got to play the famous keyboard part to the song Amazed in front of 50,000 people with the lead singer from Lonestar.  If that's not cool, I don't know what is!).

We moved three & then eight hours away from our families in order to fulfill this dream of being a musician (and making a living at it).  His musical talent is just ridiculous.  It's a great party trick.  Play a song once & he'll play it back for you on the piano.  Give him 15 minutes & he can play just about any instrument.

I tell that story to say how proud I am of him.  I mean, who actually gets to make a living as a musician?  He's appreciated for his musical talents.  That's far more than most musicians are able to say.  It's a hard road.

And let me tell you, it's very cool to be his wife.  To know that my husband possesses this incredible talent is amazing.  And sexy.  Nothing makes me prouder than to give him a kiss in the lobby after church & watch him pick up our little girl & swing her around.  I don't know what I imagined my future husband to be like, but I don't think I ever dreamed this big.  A guy who loves God and music?  Dreamy! (Don't make fun... I'm being serious!)

 

Last Saturday he went to Urgent Care because of severe pain in his stomach.  When something medical happens on a Saturday, we treat it immediately.  Sundays are a big deal-- you can't just throw anyone in his position to fill in.  Once he got to Urgent Care, they sent him straight to the hospital.  After several hours & tests they confirmed that it is a gallbladder issue (again).

We left the hospital at midnight, and you know what that joker did?  He went straight to church to double check that everything was ready to go.  He slept, but by 8am he was on stage leading worship.  He worked a full day.  I did convince him to stay at home on Monday, but that was no easy feat.  He slept pretty much the entire day, which made my heart happy.

It's hard to get him to slow down, but sometimes I have to remember that that's what got him here in the first place-- not slowing down when others do.

My husband is a rock star.  And he'll blush when he reads this & insist that I not post it, but that's what makes him awesome in the first place.  :)

Is it wrong to think the worship leader is hot?  Does it make it okay that it's my husband?

Us lately.

Lately?  I've been a bit busy.  You know, buying a house & such.  But in typical Fowler style, we make sure to make time for each other.  So even if the house is a disaster (which bothers me more than it used to), we're still going to make those family memories.  

Which is why I jumped out of bed at 9:30am this Saturday morning.  Normally, we lay around the house like lazy bums on Friday and Saturday until one of us has something to do in the outside world.

But this morning I realized... this is our last chance to go to the pumpkin patch together!  It closes at 5pm, so we can't go after work, and next Friday is when our friends are getting together to carve pumpkins.  AND WE'RE MOVING NEXT WEEK.

So at 9:30 I realized this.  I also felt the strong urge to find a Halloween costume for the little one today.

We're strange.  We play biting games.  It's strangely cathartic for the person biting.  :)

I know.  A+ parents right here.

Go ahead... find something cuter in this world.  I dare you!

And then there's this.  I'm sorry.  What?  How did she grow up so much in one little year?

Rattlesnake tail, coyote tail, and all sorts of other vacation fun!

I haven't updated on our family in awhile.  We've been on vacation this week so here are a few things that we've been up to:

Finding ridiculous posters.  Please notice that the green cup is for the 'girl with hangover.'  I can't even...

 
Happy baby girl.

My man working hard.  Yes, even on vacation.  If there's something that needs to be done, he's going to do it.  I love that about him.  He values family time, but also doesn't expect things to just be given to him.

And we have quite an assortment of photos like this: 

 

Then we have four little monkeys jumping on the bed.

And two little monkeys not willing to share their Paw.

And this.  Sorry it's so dark, but it's pretty awesome.  This is my parents living room on any given day.  This wasn't a family reunion.  No one was invited.  It was just my siblings picking up their kids at the end of the day.  One sibling & his wife is missing, as well as Josh.  The best times are when everyone is up here, crammed in one room.  There are actually 11 people in this photo.

Doing a little work isn't so bad on vacation when this is your view!

 Three little monkeys jumping on the bed this time!  Notice the little chairs.  They brought them from the living room into this bedroom so they could climb on the bed.  All three are within 6 weeks of each other age-wise.

Love this crazy kid.

Totally not scared of anything.

Swinging with mommy!

 And mommy taught her to swing like this, too. She was a fan!

Then we went to Paw's office & he had lots of fun toys to play with.  Rattlesnake!

Sweet baby playing the ukelele!

Playing with a coyote tail.

Drinking Paw's homemade apple cider!

Not at all willing to give this saw up.

And we finished it off with a little harmonica tune.  In which she hummed into the harmonica.  :)

Then Paw took her to town & bought her a necklace!