Callie

I just love this little girl. The past two days I've had a lot of one on two time with her and Sidney and it's been nice. She is growing so much and time just seems to be flying. She is really starting to mature and some of the problems we've had with her are starting to be better. She is so sweet and so spunky! I love her spirit and I just know God is going to use her for big wonderful things! I love the words she uses right now. She will say "How Tute" for cute, she calls Hannah "Baby Tanna" and one of my fav's is this video. She has always called Hippo's "Purplepie" lol I love it. She can hippopotamus  but still calls them this. Oh how I just want to video tape their entire lives and push the pause button!!

Finding Joy....

I was talking with a dear friend recently about how easy it is to be overcome with the little stresses of everyday life. The little things the things that are there everyday (or almost everyday) On Sunday Kyle, me and the kids were driving to our small group. I said out loud that I would not let the stress of our house being a mess steal my joy that evening. Then I had to really analyze how often I let the stresses of everyday life steal my joy... the answer was A LOT. How clean my home is, how good the kids are acting, how organized life feels at the time, they all dictate in some way how I react during the day, most times the most with my husband. That is sad. (although very true)  So this week I am resolving to find the joy that God has granted me in my life. The joy He  means for me to have even though I allow circumstances to take that away everyday. I'm tired of having to apologize to Kyle for being a brat because "insert stressful circumstance here".  Here goes nothing! It's going to be hard but I refuse to let this season of my life go by and then be sad and regret not enjoying the sweetness that I know for a fact I will miss one day!

Fall.

I'm so excited that Fall is in full swing around here! I just LOVE it. Today was a beautiful upper 60's and sunny day so we took full advantage. After school we headed outside to soak it up until nap time. It was nice and I took the chance to snap some pics of the kids since I haven't been so great with the camera these days. So here is a unloading of pictures!

Sweet Hannah. These were actually taken probably 2 or 3 weeks ago but they were on my memory card and I forgot about them so I wanted to add them.

 He takes such good care of them.

Sidney with breakfast all over her face but she is so cute I just couldn't resist

This says a lot about her personality

Hahaha attitude

muscle pose every time! lol

take 1.

 take 2.

 take 3.

 take 4.

 take a million :) 

One month!

Hahahaha I know she looks almost asleep in this pic but I couldn't for the life of me get her to be alert when I was trying to get her picture. The she proceeded to be very ticked off when I was taking too long. I can no believe it's been a month since she's been born. I mean in a way it feels like she's been here forever but in another it feels like the past month has flown by, way way way too fast. I am very ready to sleep more than 4 hours at a time. (hey that is a good night right now!) But in all honestly if it were my choice (which it is not) I would press the pause button on her for a while. Like I said I have enjoyed every once of this little one! I really really would love her to stay tiny. Although already she isn't very tiny. At her one month apt. on her actual one month birthday, she weighed in at 10.2 lbs. She was born at 8lbs 5oz, got down to 7lbs 10oz and now is a little chunk. She is up to 21inches from 19 and has a tiny head and body. Her weight was in the 70% and her head and length were the 20th %. She and Callie, my little headed children :) Right now she loves to cuddle. She also doesn't mind being sat down, most of the time. (sometimes she is over being not held though) She takes most naps in her crib and will put herself to sleep most of the time too. She still sleeps a lot and is on a pretty good every 3 hour eating schedule. She loves her family and you can totally tell when she is around someone she recognizes. I swear from the start when friends of mine were around that we spent a lot of time with when she was in my belly, you could tell she recognized the voices. She is very perceptive and from the start had amazing eye control and big purposeful smiles. She's pretty amazing.

School is going wonderful now! More about that for a next post!

Henry is in Kindergarten!!!

So it has started! We are here and the end of life as we knew it has happened. I know it sounds terribly dramatic but it's so true. I'm glad I have so many dear friends that home school because there is no way for me to express the difference in our lives now. Things are totally different and I'm just trying to figure out our new life :) Henry is doing amazing, he is such a great student. The girls are adjusting. It

 has been a little rough for them (and me) to have two hours that they have to kinda be not center of attention. But we are working toward a goal and it's getting better. Between new baby, not as much sleep, and just trying to adjust to a complete life change I have been spent by the end of the day. But it's completely worth it! If I were not doing this I would be sending my 5 year old out the door into someones else's presence for 5 day's a week over 8 hours a day and I would be having a mental breakdown about that  so no matter what life would be changing drastically. I'm glad we are following our convictions for this year no matter how hard it has been. Praying for patience, grace, and perseverance for the next couple months and thanking the Lord for encouraging friends, family, and husband! Can't believe my baby boy is in Kindergarten!!!!

The View From Here.

So I have to admit I'm enjoying my evening chest ornament more than I ever have before. My sweet evening now consist of sitting in our comfy chair with a sweet smelling baby on my chest and I love it. There is something so sweet about this time around. It's like I've finally finally realized what is important and what to just not worry about. I've done SO much less worrying and so much more enjoying this sweet baby even in just these first 12 days of her life. It could help that she is a super baby and cries barley at all, now this does make a difference. But I also have not really stressed about nursing, about scheduling, about my "me" time. None of that. Perhaps because I know, four times over, how very fast it goes by? Maybe. But I can not get enough of her smell, of her little warm body, of her sweet squeaks, her dream smiles, her soft skin, oh I could just go on and on. And one day I will have an older baby who has a bedtime, who won't want to just camp out on me and sleep. And that time will be sweet too, but now I treasure this. Even with all the sleep deprivation it brings I treasure it so much. It is entirely worth every bit!

Hannah Jane's Arrival....Pt 2

OK so anyway, I could feel my legs and that was great. My greatest fear of an epidural is that I will be totally numb and wouldn't be able to move at all.... thankfully all the epidurals I have had that has never happened. Anyway I was super comfortable and happy :) Then my Dr came over to check me. OK WARNING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW A LITTLE GROSS INFO STOP READING HERE .. So she checked me and sure enough I was complete only my water had not broken, which probably saved me from having to deliver an hour before. She was laughing about how full and bulging the bag of water was and took her finger nail and scratched it lightly and all of a sudden it burst and I mean burst everywhere. All over her the nurse and probably 4 or 5 feet across the floor. LOL I have never seen anything like that. And she called it too because during one of my last apts she had said she didn't think Hannah was all that huge but that I was full of a lot of fluid. She was right :)

So after that I pushed twice :) and she was out. Out and perfect. I was so so so excited that Baptist finally adapted Kangaroo Care and this was the first baby I had a chance to do it with. I had talked to the nurses about it and they were going on and on about how wonderful it had been. How it had changed the experience in the birthing rooms because the babies really didn't cry because they were on their mama's. Well all that said Hannah cried for about 2 hours after she was born :) She showed them I guess. While all I could do was smile, I thought we were in for it with this one. I figured she might be a little loud baby. But then after that i guess she got it out because she really didn't cry much at all the rest of her little life. (well this is day six so this far :) She is a super sweet sweet baby and loves to cuddle, loves her mama, and loves to be held. She is so so good and I am so thankful for that. Like I said, such a blessing and God knew exactly what was good for our family, she is a HUGE answer to prayer. 

The kids just adore, and I mean adore her. This is the first time I've had ones old enough to actually be helpful and let me tell you how great that had been. Henry loves to help with her and Lily is such a mommy. She makes my heart smile. She is totally my baby sitter and loves to hold and cuddle her sister. The best part is that when I give Hannah to her since she doesn't smell like me she will calm down and most times go to sleep. :) Callie is in love with her and even Sidney is super sweet and has not shown (so far) any real signs of being more jealous of her than anyone else in the family. The thankfulness I have in my heart for my life, my family, to the Lord , there is just no words for it!