More Milestones…..

Well, more Milestones this past wk or so……  At his one month check up Smiley weighed in at 2lbs over his birth weight!!!  Seriously amazes me how fast he is growing!  He is such a doll, smiling and laughing without sound. SOOOO cute!  Sadly, he isn’t always smiley….. but I think we are getting some of that figured out. Here’s a pic of him smiling…. not the best pic but it is really hard to capture those smiles because I am so busy enjoying them and encouraging more! 

    The next milestone was our sweet B turning 6!!! Where has the time gone? My 2nd born 6? Impossible!  Our family grew in honor of her day.  For her birthday we got her a rabbit. The rabbit is a meat rabbit B named “Violet”  but, fear not, we shall not be eating her! ;o) Here is a few pics of them:

  

 

  B also went out for the annual trip to the salon and lunch date with her Grandma and Papa. Well, lunch was with both but the salon trip was not really Papa’s cup of tea, so he skipped that part. ;o)  She is now sporting a shorter hair style too which is just as cute as can be.  I *FINALLY* got pics today so here they are!

 

   It seems we have so many changes happening right now….  I suppose that is just how life is but I am having a hard time keeping track of it all! :o)  I am blaming it on sleep deprivation….. you know, it is amazing how much you can blame on that! ;o)

Milestones……

  So many posts never make it past my brain….. I somehow had forgotten how time intensive a new baby is and how tired one can get when you have one! :o)   The last 2 1/2 – 3 weeks have been full of milestones.  Celebrations….. all celebrated in very different ways.  I wanted to address each of them separately, I wanted to add pictures (but most of them are packed away in some unknown box and/or need to be scanned in and I currently can’t use my scanner/printer because *someone* lost the disc to reinstall it on her computer. That poor creature will remain nameless though. ;o) Obviously none of my big plans are happening! :oP Hopefully I will be able to get this post written and posted though. Better than nothing I guess…….  

  First off we sort of celebrated my 30th birthday….. *was going to add adorable baby pic of me here* I say sort of because I spent the majority of the day in labor :oP  I have to admit that through the months, as my birthday got closer, I went through a variety of emotions regarding this birthday.  At first I was bothered as 30 seemed old, over hill, scary, and a little depressing. Somehow changing that first # felt traumatic. Then I came to realize that I had bought into a worldy mind set on age (not anyone else’s age, just regarding mine). Our culture has an anti-biblical view of age. It worships youth and the “wisdom” of youth. Women pay copious amounts of money every year to try and maintain a youthful appearance, adults acting like teens is considered “cool”, it’s considered a compliment to say that someone doesn’t look like the mother of _ children, etc….. funny thing is this has always driven me nuts. Biblically I see the opposite….. age is respected, gray hair is an earned honor (not something to be hidden), and maturity is considered a good thing! After I thought it through I decided that I was rather excited about turning 30 and am really hoping that my 30s are WAY better than my 20s!  :o)

 

The day after my birthday we welcomed our 4th child into our home.  What blessing and joy!  A milestone and celebration in so many different ways….. We thought we were done after 3 kids but God had better plans and we are so grateful! He is such a smiley, sweet boy! When he looks into my eyes and smiles I totally melt! Truly a joy to have in our family and it is so neat to see how the kids all interact with him. The transition has been smooth and they all adore him so much!  I just can’t get over what a blessing he is! 

 

A couple weeks later we celebrated our 10th anniversary……. We celebrated with a nice dinner at a local restaurant we had never been to before. They actually had a couple different options on the menu that I could eat!!!  Thanks to my Mom we were able to go out without any kids which was fun. :o)  Our ten years together have been so amazing. We have experienced such joys and such sorrows, so many trials and triumphs.  Life has been full and, though I wouldn’t have chosen to go through most of what we have been trough, I am thankful for God’s loving hand on us at all times and the fact He gave me the most amazing man ever to go through it all with.  I would not have wanted to face life with anyone else by my side! It is fascinating to me to look back at who we were and who we have become.  

 

Then, on the 27th, we celebrated the second anniversary of Nathan’s home going. This year was quieter than last year…… We (Brian, the kids, and I) just drove to the cemetery and shared a few memories together. I was reminded of how much he loved his nieces and nephews and was saddened that he never got to hold his newest nephew….. nor will I get the congratulatory half hug, the request to take his picture with baby, or any of the other little traditions we had.  The kids still talk about him a lot and it keeps the memories fresh. I can’t believe that it has been 2 years already and that the girls remember him so well. 

 

  I hope this post isn’t too disjointed and that it makes sense…… I have only managed to get a few sentences in at a time so it has taken me over 2 wks to write this!  :oP   I may have to edit later but for now I am going to post this just to get it done! lol….  We have more changes happening which will need their own post, hopefully it won’t take as long to get it written!  ;o)

Soon enough?

  Well, I actually had a couple minutes today and was able to get the pics from the camera to the computer! So here is the promised pic of J’s haircut and a few bonus ones of her special find from yesterday.

 

Her little friend, who she caught all by herself. She was so proud!  :o)

  

  Now, to see if I can get a couple more minutes finish my other post…. Over a week in progress is a bit much! ;o)

Random updates

Well, I have been working on a post for a week and still haven't finished! :oP  My time is just so limited and my brain cells even more so! :oD  This little note is to tell you of the recent happenings that aren't covered in the post that is *still* in progress and to make sure that you all know we are still alive!
  First off, today was our first official day of school! It was great...... I love our curriculum! We aren't dong all of our subjects yet but should be up to full speed soon..... well if baby cooperates and lets me get a little more sleep it will be soon!  *yawn*
  This weekend was rather traumatic for me as I cut my eldest's hair....... When wet her hair went to her waist!!! Now it is (when dry) just at her shoulders.  It turned out super cute and will be much easier to care for but I have to admit that I LOVED her long hair. I just couldn't keep up caring for it right now. She is excited. I took a pic and will try and get it on the comp and uploaded soon. (Soon being a relative term that means sometime in the future, hopefully before her hair grows back to it's previous length ;o)
   There was one more thing but the aforementioned brain problem is rearing it's ugly head....... Maybe I will remember later :oP  

A little peek…….

  Here is our newest little man….. This first pic is shortly after he was born

Poor little guy has a bit of a black eye from his entrance into the world  :o(

I love this pic! He looks so much older than 3 days though…..

 

His adorable hand….. I just ♥ baby hands!   :o)

  Hoping to get a pic of all 4 kids soon and will post it too. They are such a good looking crew! And yes, I’m sure I am not at all biased  ;oD

He's here!!!

 After a completely different experience than my other 3 births, baby #4 has arrived!  He weighed in at a whopping 8lbs 4oz and is 20 1/2 in long. We are all madly in love!  :o)  Will try to do pics after we have had a chance to recover........

A little update

  I have not been in the mood for posting pics, updating my blog, or really much of anything lately. My due date was on Sunday and I am still HUGELY pregnant. I never got this big with any of my others……. My head knows all the “right responses” to this but that is as far as it goes. I am VERY tired of being pregnant!!!   Much as there is a lot about pregnancy that I loveand will miss, there is also a lot that I don’t love and am ready to be done with.  Truth be told, I would have been happy to have this baby 3wks ago!!!  To make it worse I am teased frequently with false alarms…… nights of no sleep because of contractions, only to have them stop when all hope for sleep is past! :oP   Oh well, though I have my doubts on the validity of these statements, I am told frequently that no one has ever been pregnant forever……….. my first thought is always “Yeah, well there is a first time for everything!”  ;o)

  On the housing front, we will not be moving for a couple months. Some friends are staying at our house and using their wonderful skills to help us finish all those mundane little detail that would probably never get done otherwise! :o) It will be so nice when they/we are done with it!  I just love the stuff they are doing and can’t believe how much nicer the house is now than it used to be!!! If it only had a larger play area for kids it would be just about perfect! :o) We will be staying with my folks until our friends no longer need our house. The kids are glad because they LOVE, LOVE, LOVE living with Papa and Grandma.  I am thinking that Papa and Grandma will be happy to have some peace and quiet restored to their lives once we move out.  ;o)  They have been so very gracious and generous to let us stay here for so long. We will never be able to repay them for all they have done for us. I just LOVE that we have such a great relationship with them and that we have been allowed this special with them. 

   O.k., so my little update got rather long and it is way past this tired mamas bed time so I am will sign off. Hopefully I will be able to update soon with a little baby info! :o)  Unless of course I end up being the exception!  ;o)