Noah is 1!

Oh big man!  What would we do without you?!  You are one now, seems like such a big milestone.  I cannot believe a year ago I gave birth to my biggest bundle of love!!  You are such a sweet joy to be around!  You LOVE your siblings.  Anytime they come into the room, your whole face lights up, and you put your arms out to them for a hug and a kiss!  What a little lover you are!  Anyone you meet you want to hug and kiss, or head butt(that seems to be your other sign of affection!)!  You are so rough, yet so gentle.  For as young as you are, you sure do love to tackle your siblings!  They all know you can take them down quick!  You like to play cars with your brother, but you are really more of a ball boy!  You get sooo excited when you see a ball! You love to throw it, and chase it around the room!  You also love your doggies!  You refer to them both as good girl, they seem to love the attention you give them!  You are such a good talker for being one!  You are constantly surprising us with new words that you have learned!  Your current favorite phrases are: "go get it" (often said when you throw the ball across the room!), "good girl" (your name for both dogs), "all done", and then you have so many single words I don't even think I can list them all!  You are working on standing up by yourself, and you crawl ALL over the place!  You are starting to walk, but you don't dare to let go, although you can cruise around the house with your walker one handed! Funny boy!

Your siblings insisted since you have a summer birthday that you needed ice cream cones!  We settled for ice cream cone cupcakes.  A twist on cake, and ice cream!  I would say you enjoyed yourself!!

 You figured out you could reach them, and helped yourself to some frosting!

 You were a bit hesitant to try them, at first!

 I'd say you decided it wasn't so bad after all!

All done, next up, a bath!

We love you sweet boy! We are looking forward to what this next year will bring us!  You are our little lover, and our big man!  I cannot wait to see how that manifests itself as you get older!  You are my biggest one year old to date, but man are you cute!  We cannot get enough of all those lovable rolls!  They just make squeezing on you such a delight!  We pray that you will get to know the Lord, and love Him!  We also pray you will continue to have such a good relationship with your siblings, and continue in your sweet loving spirit!

 Presents are WAY more fun to climb on then to actually open!

 You were pretty excited to get some blocks, so you could play with the big kids!

Happy Birthday Noah! Here's to the next year!

33 weeks!

Well little one, we have done it!  We made it over 33 weeks!  We have a little more than 2 weeks left on bed rest, unless you decide to come sooner. (but we are praying you stay there for awhile yet!)

Our time in the hospital has been pretty calm this past week! We thank God for that!  Each day that you stay inside is a blessing, and we hope that trend continues.  Although, we cannot wait to meet you, and get the family back together! I still get to see your sweet face everyday, and you cannot imagine the joy that brings me!  Even with our daily ultrasounds, we still don't know if you are a boy or a girl.  We do know you are beautiful, and a precious gift from God, and we cannot wait until the day when we can find out, and get to kiss on that sweet face!  If you don't decide to come sooner, we have a scheduled C-section for Dec. 26th the day after Christmas!  I hope you don't hate us forever for that date, but that is the day you are 36 weeks old, and the Doctors want you out by then!! Wasn't really our choice-we can blame the Doctors for the date picked!  But we are excited to welcome you into our family as a little late Christmas gift! There is no better way to spend the day after Christmas in my opinion.  Christmas day we get to celebrate Jesus, and the Man who brought us a new life, and makes us a new creation.  And the very next day, we get to celebrate our own special gift from God.  Which by the way is what your name means....we didn't know when we picked out your names it would have more than one meaning! But God always has a way of surprising us that way, doesn't He?

The kiddos are still doing really good, and are having a great time with Mimi and Papaw!  Loving every minute of the extra attention they get, with all the aunts and uncles and great grandparents around.  It makes my Momma heart happy to see them all having so much fun, and getting so much love!

Greg has been busy at home.  Slowly getting things ready for us all to be home, and taking care of Decaf and the cats!  Thankfully a good friend volunteered to keep Kona while we are all spread out all over the place.  That has been a huge relief for us, knowing we don't have to have someone there to let her out every couple hours.  We also have another amazing friend that has been going and letting Decaf out when Greg decides to spend the night up here.  Another huge help, because then he doesn't have to drive back and forth so much!

We have been blessed majorly by friends, family, and church family!  Through all the visits, cards, presents, help with our animals, and kiddos.  We couldn't do it without you all supporting, and praying for us!

"I thank my God every time I remember you."-Phillipians 1:3

Time...

Ah...The ever elusive time.  We are never content, it seems, with the time we have been given.  We want it to slow down, speed up, we need more of it, there just doesn't seem to be enough time to go around!  What is it about life that makes us beg for it to slow, or for more of it?  I mean we can't really make more time.  We all are given the exact same amount of time in the day, and we need to learn how to make the most of what we have been given.

Being put in the hospital on bed rest for 5 weeks, plus the recovery time at the end, has really made me realize that time is all in what we make it!  Now, I have known this before, and have always thought of myself at being a good time manager.  And to be honest, I thought the worst part about this whole bed rest thing was all the "wasted" time I was going to have.  I mean really, what on earth was I supposed to do with 5 weeks of "free time?"  Free time was barely accounted for in my day to day living.  I mean, I chase and train four small children around all day! When they are sleeping it is time to catch up...do the dishes, the laundry, the sweeping, the mopping(so no one falls trying to run on the wet floor!).  Me time-well that just wasn't really in the plans.  That was something I could maybe squeeze in from 10p-11p at night, and usually by that point I was too tired, I would do my quiet time, and then just stare at the wall! Kind of a waste of time, but a debriefing of sorts after my busy day, which I found my body to need before I could settle into a good sleep!

What I have found out about time is even on bed rest, you can still wish for more.  Funny right??? I have been given all the time in the world.  And here I sit, wishing for more? What on earth is wrong with me?  We live in such a busy, go go go world, it is so hard to just be, and I mean really be in the moment.  I have learned to be content, and to love the moment that I am in.  And I am actually loving my bed rest.  YES, you heard that correct, I am loving it. And no it isn't because I don't have to spend my day chasing kids around from sun up to sun down, because I miss that part of my day. I yearn for the day when I get to do all that again, and get to bask in the little moments with my children. And I know that day will come soon (relatively speaking!).  I have already finished 2 weeks here at the hospital.  I have no idea where those two weeks have gone.  I thought I would have made a chain counting down the days until I can break out of here.  But instead I have chosen to give myself tasks, deadlines, and the ability to do things for myself.  This has been a wonderful time of refreshment for my soul. I have been able to paint my toenails without 4 heads watching me, and trying to touch the pretty polish! (I do miss that though!)  I have been able to take a long, hot shower.  I have been able to read! Read big people books!  I read a lot during the day to my children, but reading books that are good for my soul, has brought a whole new wave of refreshment to my life.  I have been able to calm myself from the busy.  Something I think we all need from time to time!  It is good for us to slow down, take a break, and just be.

God knows I don't slow down for anything, I thrive on being a goer, and packing as much on my to-do list as possible.  I am good at judging myself for the day based on how many things I got crossed off the list, or how many additional things I have added. He also knows that I need time with Him, and with myself to find myself in Him again.  And sometimes He does that in such dramatic ways, we have no choice but to shut up and listen!  Well, Lord, you have my attention, and my time.  Please help me to use this time wisely!  Help it to not slip from my finger tips, by filling it with useless things.  Help me to minister to others, and come up with my mission for the next year.  The quiet has been nice, and oh so good for my soul.  And I choose to thank you Lord, for giving me this time of peace.  A time to reflect on all you have done in my family's life, and in my own.  A time to truly reflect on you this Christmas season.  A time of anticipation, much like Mary must have felt knowing the time was near.  I cannot imagine!

"He says, Be still and know that I am God." -Psalm 46:10a

Avery Turns 2

My sweet girl! I cannot believe you are 2!!!  You are such big stuff, for a tiny little thing.  Short and Sassy!  You know how to hold your own around here, and you are also not afraid to voice your opinion.  You are smart, funny, and oh so serious!  You always know when to make us laugh, and man can you make us laugh!  You also are the most empathetic baby!  Any time anyone is hurt, or sad, you run to them, and make sure they are ok.  If they have an owie you kiss it better, if they are just upset you give them a hug, if they are sulking well then you sit next to them with your little arm around them and rub their back! There is no one like you my sweet child. I pray you keep your sweet, empathetic spirit!  What a joy and a blessing you are to our family!

We got to spend your 2nd birthday at Mimi and Papaw's house! Just like we have been able to do with your big siblings.  Oh man did you have fun-although being my more serious child you did run off to play by yourself several times.  I think the amount of people there may have been a little overwhelming for you! Of course your party was HUGE! Lots of friends and family came to celebrate YOU!  We celebrated with a huge brunch!  Of course because Mimi was in charge of the food, we knew it was going to be good! And she didn't let us down!!

 Your cute watermelon bowl that Mimi made!

Momma got to make you a cupcake cake!  You LOVE cupcakes, so we figured this was the perfect way to make sure you got cupcakes!  We of course had to shape it like a princess dress, being that you are such the little princess!  And it HAD to be purple.  Your new favorite color.  Not sure if that was put on you by big sister or not, but you seem content in knowing it is YOUR color.  You definitely make sure we all know anything purple MUST belong to you, because who else could have something in your color!

Princess Dress Cupcake Cake!

 Blowing out your candles

 Mmmmm...yummy!

Time for presents! You are a spoiled and loved little girl!  There were so many presents for you to open!  You loved them all!  You got lots of stuff for your baby doll (your new favorite toy), and were so excited! You also got coloring stuff, little people, clothes, jammies, underwear, dress up stuff, a rolling backpack (another favorite!).  When all was said and done, you were tired and definitely ready for a nap-of course after you tried out and opened all of your new toys!  What a pleasure it was to have all of our friends and family there to help us celebrate you being you!  We love you sweet girl and cannot wait to watch you continue to grow!  We pray you will grow to love the Lord, and continue to throw us all into giggle fits, and keep caring about others!  

Happy Birthday Avery!

 Present time

Noah and Athaiah decided they wanted to help you open presents!