New York, New York.

Like the feeling of alot of these recent posts, this one is long overdue.

In late February, our little family made a week long trip to New York City and Orlando. First, here is a glimpse into the time we had in one of our most favorite cities.











// half of these photos stolen from my cousin, thanks Kate! :)

Our main purpose for being in New York was to see my family and introduce them to Audrey. My dad has two brothers & one sister in NY and so we have a sweet bunch of aunts, uncles, cousins (+ their significant others) in this beautiful state. We were there for a little over three days and had such an amazing time. We visited Times Square (the huge Toys R 'Us), FAO Schwartz, Highline, South Port & Central Park. As for food, it was never short of amazing. We ate at his wonderful italian restaurant where Audrey picked her nose half the time, I had my first lobster roll at Chelsea Market & on our last night we ate at the Jekyll and Hyde Club Restaurant (an experience). I can't forget the amazing meal my Tita Cyn cooked at her house = delicious Filipino & American food along with equally delicious desserts.

We were spoiled to the max during our visit. My cousins & aunts/uncles would not let us pay for anything. ANYTHING. Some took days off, some met us late in the night after shifts, some drove us around, and everyone loved on Audrey. I seriously have the best family in the world. Even writing this makes me incredibly grateful for how loving and generous they are. I come from a line of extraordinary human beings. I miss them, always miss them.

New York, we love you.
Love,
Sarah Joy

Fifteen!

It must be customary on my blog to be at least a month late on these. -____-
// Her sixteen months post, will hopefully, be up soon. :)

Audrey Love is fifteen months old!
This past month, Audrey:

+ has gotten attached to her little lovies, especially Elmo & "George" (the Curious)
+ loves rolling around and hanging out in mama & papa's bed
+ insists on feeding herself
+ knows the actions for "If You're Happy & Know It"
+ backs that thing up and plops
+ has learned several colors & several shapes
+ will not let you walk by a balloon without "telling" you it's hers
+ weighs 26.5 lbs (80th percentile)
+ heighth, not sure, but also in the 80th
+ does this thing where she'll just lay & relax anywhere on the floor
+ is great in public, but cannot sit still in restaurants
+ loves to watch you sing
+ will stop any crying or fussing for "Go outside?"
+ has gotten over her fear of the vaccuum but she'll still stare at it

Did I mention how how sweet our girl is? I've seen it more & more these past couple months. If a child's personality at this age is any indication of who she'll grow up to be, Audrey is definitely going to be on the sweeter side. She is prone to smiles and giggles & not big on tantrums or fussiness. She really has been such a good baby and now, toddler.

I often wonder what kind of girl, what kind of woman Audrey will be. I hope she will be kind and just and encouraging. I hope she has the strength to stand for truth & her beliefs, and still humble enough to always be willing to learn and be on a constant journey of growth. I hope she loves God wholly. I hope she defers herself from people and circumstances that either cause or breed on hurtfulness, closemindedness and negativity. I hope I can be this kind of person she can look up to.

Whatever person she is, we'll be there for her & will always love her. We'll spend the rest of our lives showing her that.

Love,
Sarah Joy

// See her other monthly posts here: six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.

Love in illustrations.

So, being on bedrest is such a strange thing. There are alot of things to do around the house, but not for me to do for now. There is so much time to do nothing but relax and stay put.

I've been doing alot of reading and interestingly enough, very little daytime Netflixing or movie watching. I've decided to work on a couple projects that I have been put on hold for quite awhile, like Audrey's baby book (eeek, long overdue!) and buying prints for our family room wall, hence this post!

The four up there I recently purchased. The ones with words from here & the other two of the couple & bicycle from here. I searched Etsy long and hard for some that would be a good fit to our style/personalities and work well with each other while staying decently priced. It was a pretty fun process of picking and choosing, although I am still keeping my eyes peeled with some family-focused kinds of illustrations.

Here are other contenders that I am itching to add to cart!

// the story one from here, the typewriter from here,
the house from here, the couple from here.

It isn't a cheap project (this is my Mother's Day gift!), but I think it will make a huge difference to the room! I love alot of the illustrations from this shop too. I'm pretty excited to see the wall come together. It really is such a great way to support individual artists and "things handmade." :)

// Here is a great post about framing prints that I read recently!

Happy decorating!

Love,
Sarah Joy

Bedrest.

// photo by my friend Kay, from January.

So I've realized that Chris & I don't have many recent non-phone photos together. I figured I remind you what we look like and that we are here and alive and doing well.

Well, one of the scariest things in my life happened to me last weekend. On Saturday afternoon, out of nowhere, I began to bleed alot. Now, if you don't know, I am (was at the time) fourteen weeks pregnant & heavy bleeding is always a scary thing when you are pregnant. Chris took me to the ER and a visit that we thought would last a few hours ended up lasting three days.

It is a long story that I don't feel like divulging in detail here, but I am much better and baby's situation is looking much better. I am currently on two-week bedrest, doctor's orders. We are taking it easy and I've got a good doctor-proxy aka Chris who makes sure I am relaxed and always relaxed.

Which brings me to the realizations, how incredibly wonderful and giving my husband truly is, even in the hardest of circumstances. I watched him sleep in a hospital chair for three nights, often getting only a few hours of sleep a day and driving back and forth from our home making sure Audrey was doing well and picking food up for me. I have to add, what an extremely humbling experience to be on "true bedrest" in a hospital where your bathroom is a bedpan and your husband has to help you use a it  almost every other hour, even at 02:00 am when he has had almost no sleep. And now being at home this past week, with very limited allowance to get out of bed to use the bathroom and shower, my Chris has brought me breakfast in bed and makes a crockpot dinner for us, every single day. He wakes up every morning between 6:00-7:00 when Audrey does, he takes care of her for her first few hours until family comes to watch her. He goes to work and comes home to take care of us/clean/do laundry/get groceries/sometimes cook again. I wonder if he even has an hour each day to just relax for himself. I hope he does. He never ever complains. Not about being tired, about being stretched. Who knew I married such a hard-working, selfless man? No doubt, I knew I did, but only to an extent I would know then. What a beautiful human being he is, shown more and more beautiful in the hardest of times.

Second realization, how thankful I am for family. Mine & Chris'. We are really spoiled with love. When they found out our recent situation and how we would need extra help with Audrey, there was not a moment's hesitation. They would help in any way they could and they have. I wish I could put into words the way that my parents act around our Audrey. To see them visit with her, you would think they were meeting her for the first time (they've seen her almost every day since she was born). Everything is incredibly cute, everything is funny, everything is new, everything is magical. I can't tell you how many times my parents have tried to get Chris & I to let Audrey stay longer or spend the night or go with them on their vacation. With them, everything is better with her around & of course, I cannot argue. I really miss being able to do little things with our girl and sometimes I start to cry when she wraps her arms around my neck or when she gets sad because I don't pick her up. I know that all of this is temporary though & for a very good purpose and more that anything, she gets lots of love from our families.

Last realization, you can most definitely fall in love with someone without meeting them. Baby growing in there, Mama loves you just as much as she would if you were here. We are waiting for you, we are praying for you, we are doing our best to take care of you, we are fighting for you in this quiet way that we can.

Constantly, always thankful.
Love,
Sarah Joy

Happiest Easter!

Chris and I forgot to mention to each other that we were putting together Easter baskets for Audrey, so our girl was rightfully spoiled with two and look, my sweet man even made one for me! I'm definitely making up for that one next year. :)

As you can see, our girl loved her baskets.

We had a wonderful low-key Easter this year. We went to our church for morning services with my little brother Brian and then headed to my parents' house to say hello and had a yummy lunch with lots of barbeque. The rest of our day was spent at home with a couple of our friends hanging out.

I love the pretty things that come with the time of Easter, but above all I am in awe of the message of Easter. God's sacrifice, alive! All of it, for us. I really am not an eloquent person, but here is a beautiful song that we sang in church yesterday morning that spoke to my heart about this wonderful and miraculous message. // found this rendition on YouTube.

"It is done!" will shout the cross, Christ has paid redemption's cost!
While the empty tomb's declaring, "Jesus saves."
Freedom's calling, chains are falling, hope is dawning bright and true.
Day is breaking, night is quaking, God is making all things new.

The greatest words to ever change a life: Jesus saves.