It has officially been one year since Carney Monthbooks! One year of being intentional about documenting our family memories and milestones. I am actually really proud of myself for being proactive in taking pictures, whether with my phone or camera. High five to me! I’m noticing that even the little moments are worthy of being remembered, so I have been taking more pictures for the simple, everyday moments. I want to remember and delight in the feel of every day because today’s simple moment will look very different from next year’s.

September marked one month as a family of four, as we got to know life with Selah. The image below is a perfect representation. One minute I’m feeling like I’m getting a grip on things and the other minute is…

That’s the reality of this season and I’m embracing it. The yummy snuggles, the nasty blowouts, the melt-my-heart smiles (even if it’s for gas), the long nursing sessions in the middle of the night, the most adorable brother and sister moments, the crying over spilled milk, the way Wayne looks over at me just because I’m holding his daughter, the nonstop laundry and dishwashing… the everything. I love every single moment and I’m thankful. So, so thankful. [side note: I know what it feels like to not enjoy all the things in motherhood. Not ashamed to talk about this. Caring for your mental health, like your physical health, is incredibly important, so if something feels off after baby… love yourself and get help. If you need someone to talk to about this, I’m more than willing].

The most challenging thing this month has been trying to find a rhythm for myself and for our family. I can’t tell you the number of times we have found ourselves having lunch at 3p or forgetting about Ethan’s nap time. I said this last month… GRACE and PATIENCE. Still the words for this season. Jesus, overflow in me. Overflow in Wayne.

September 10th, Ashley and I celebrated National Hot Dog Day! We grabbed gas station hot dogs (our favorite, don’t judge) and had the fanciest hot dog date at a new boba tea shop. SO impressed with the interiors of Frosty Fox! If I’m not mistaken, outside of going to a friend’s house to watch a Gator game, I believe this was my first official outing with Selah. I couldn’t be prouder that it was for hot dogs 🙂

HUGE family milestone… We said goodbye to Ethan’s man bun. He started requesting a haircut (pretty sure his daddy had something to do with that) and we agreed to cut it at the end of summer. I took one last photo with him before his cut. I’m still getting used to his new look, but he is loving it. I asked him if he missed his man bun and he responded with some sass. “Not at all!” Cool, cool.

Another big milestone was Ethan’s first fishing experience with Daddy! He caught his first fish all by himself!

Get yourself a friend who texts you and asks if she could watch your kids so that you can go on a date night with your husband. I even wore heels! Wayne and I had dinner at Civilization (couldn’t recommend it enough) and desserts at this miniature donut/video game bar, Mini Donut Plains. I love this man so much and it felt so good to walk around downtown, holding his hand.

Sometime this month was an attempt to take cute pictures of the kids in film. Here’s one:

Here is the behind-the-scenes, more accurate shot. Well, we tried!

Sunset at the farmer’s market downtown!

Our church, Greenhouse, had its leadership conference this month. The focus was on choosing to pivot your life from doing it all by your own strength and moving towards being saturated and led by His Holy Spirit. If we are truly led by the Spirit, then it isn’t about us or how well we did. The pressure is off of us, as all of the hope and expectation is on Jesus. That same weekend, another school semester began for Wayne. He was out of town for lab all weekend and I had the kids to myself. We may have gotten to the conference way late, but we made it and I’m proud of the fact that we did!

It was Tia Ashley’s birthday! Since she loves Disney, her husband planned an “at-home” Disney day and it was the cutest. The whole house was decorated and each room was a different part of Magic Kingdom. They came over for lunch at “Carney’s Corner” (Casey’s Corner on Mainstreet USA) for the famous hot dogs and mac & cheese. Then after these two had dinner at their house, the “monorail” (Wayne in our car with a Youtube recording of the monorail welcome audio) brought them over to the “Polynesian Resort” where they had Dole Whip and watched the fireworks show on our TV.

Kim, our Associate Photographer, invited our clan to join hers for dinner and it was so much fun. It was the first time our families hung out since she’s been hired (one year ago this month)! With two pregnancies and two newborns within the year, it’s been busy. But it was so sweet to my heart to have quality time with her and watch the kiddos play together. I cannot wait for our first real wedding season together in November!

This. This below was my favorite moment this month. Our little family was going on a neighborhood walk and Wayne suggested we walk to the new ice cream shop in our neighborhood. We didn’t even get halfway through when Selah started crying. I knew we wouldn’t make it, so I told Wayne to go ahead without us. After nursing, I realized that we could just drive over to them and probably get there at the same time! I found them in a little booth sharing a chocolate ice cream sundae, with Ethan’s bike parked next to him. This was the first moment I felt like it was the beginning of it all. We have had such sweet moments at home, but this felt different. It was something about meeting up with the boys, just the two of us, and then making memories at a neighborhood ice cream shop (that could potentially become “our spot”) that made it all sink in.

Another birthday we celebrated this month, was our friend Stephanie’s birthday! We went out to dinner and ended the night playing Bang and Farkle. Game nights with this crew are no joke. We stayed out way later than any new parents should (3a!) but it was soooo worth it!

At the end of this month, we began the process of closing in our back porch and making it a sunroom. I’m hoping we will spend many long nights in here laughing, crying (happy tears) and getting deep over dinner with friends and family. I’m hoping for moments of reading in the corner there as the kids play in the backyard. And I’m hoping for a ton of snuggle time as we watch the rain come down from this room.

And one of the last memories of the month was reliving old college days with some of my architecture (and doctor!) friends. They drove over from Orlando to meet Selah and have lunch at our favorite spot, Mi Apa! It was a bit surreal to be sitting in the same table and think that this was where it all started. Now, 11 years later, we are still here… with just a few life changes.

Until next month.