Mommy plays Santa for a night

I felt like Santa last night as I put gifts under the tree and in the kids’ stockings after they went to bed.  I decided that we’d open presents this morning since we’ll be out of town for Christmas.  So we did our “Christmas” this morning.  I got up early, baked cinnamon rolls, and then the kids started getting up.  I loved seeing their faces as they saw the tree.  What a delight it must have been for those who were there at the first Christmas when baby Jesus was born.  Can you imagine!  Going to visit him in the stable and seeing him in the manger!  I get all tingly feeling when I think about it.  Our Saviour came down to this earth as a man so he might live here for awhile and then eventually sacrifice himself for us like no other could.  He separated himself from His Father and became flesh for us!  I’m so thankful for all that he did for us and has accomplished.  May we especially remember the true reason of why we celebrate Christmas at this time of year and always.
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Our tree and gifts all ready to go last night:

Some of the ornaments close up

Valentines

Okay, I know I’m a day late but I worked yesterday and we took the kids to the Children’s Museum last night for their Free Night.  So it was a busy day.  

I promised pics of the boys Valentines for school.  Here are the pics and then the cards we made.

Hope you all had a fun Valentines Day spent with those you love!

Baby Food

Well, my baby girl is growing up.  She’ll be 7 months old next week!!! CrAzY!!!  She is very interested in table food and so far all I’ve given her is rice cereal, apple sauce, bananas, avocados, and baby puffs and those mum-mum crackers.  She is very curious about what we are eating so I know she’s ready to try more things, but I really didn’t want to buy the expensive store bought stuff.  I found this site on pinterest: 1 month of baby food for $20 and thought I’d give it a try.  I don’t have everything listed, but I do have a bag of sweet potatoes.  So that is what I’m making today.  I’ll take some fun food pics of Abby and her messy face for you all to enjoy later.

Coming soon: Abby’s 6 month pics (she’s 6 months until the 14th, right?  so I’m not too far behind )

Also: Valentine’s Day pictures and the cards I’m making for the boys to take to school.  Working on them today.  I’ll post when I’m done.  I laugh every time I look at the pics I took of them.

My Baby Girl is 3 months already!

Abby turned 3 months on Sunday.  My little girl is growing up WAY too quickly.  Here are a few pictures I’ve taken of her recently.

Training your children…

Proverbs 22:6

“Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.”

I ordered some children’s book recently that I thought I would share.  What I liked about them is that they are books that teach your child about God and his righteousness, sin, holiness, etc.  They are story books written to point your child to Christ.  Also, they are written by a great Christian author, R.C. Sproul.  I also bought some story/picture coloring books.  They are geared towards younger aged children, so I’m hoping my kids enjoy them.  I don’t have too many more details on them since I’m still waiting for them to arrive in the mail.  So here is the list:

1) The Donkey who carried a King by Sproul

2) The Priest with Dirty Clothes by Sproul

3) The Prince’s Poison Cup by Sproul

4) God is Everywhere by MacKenzie (coloring book)

5) God knows Everything by MacKenzie (coloring book)

We’ve also been using “the Jesus Storybook Bible” at devotions with the boys.  It puts the Bible into stories for younger children to understand a bit better.  The boys love it and always have questions after we are done reading.  The also like looking at the pictures.  Every story points to Christ.  It has been neat to see my boys hearts and minds grow as they learn about Christ and who he is and what he has done for us. 

Beautiful, Baby Girl

She’s finally here.  Abigail Jenae was born yesterday, July 14, at 12:25 pm.  Weighed a whoppin’ 9 lbs 12 oz and 21 in long.  I had a feeling she’d be a bit big since her brothers were both close to 9 lbs and they were early.  She decided to take her time and arrived 4 days late and she only came then because I was induced. 

It was a beautiful delivery.  I labored and delivered in the tub, just like with Seth.  Although Abby wasn’t quite as easy to deliver and took a bit longer to push out.  I was able to hold her in the tub for a bit and then after they checked her out, the nurses gave her back to me to hold for several hours before taking her to clean her up and stuff.  She is a hungry baby already and was smacking her lips and so I was able to feed her right away.  She wanted to be fed almost every 2 hours last night.  So if this post has lots of typos or doesn’t make sense for some reason…it’s because I didn’t get much sleep last night. 

Abby’s middle name “Jenae” is after her mommy (my middle name is Renae) and Grandma DJ (my mom’s name is Janet).    Abigail means “Father’s Joy.”  

Here are a few photos of our precious little one:

Waiting…

We are awaiting the arrival of our baby girl.  I honestly thought she would have been here by now.  I am trying to be patient..not something that comes easy for me.   I thought she might be a 4th of July baby, but maybe she wants to share her birthday with her daddy (July 6).  We’ll see what God has planned for our little one. 

In the meantime, we are enjoying staying at Joe’s parents and being extremely spoiled.  Mom V is an awesome cook and it has been wonderful to have a pool to jump into with how hot it has been lately (over 100 degrees almost every day this week).

We’ve done lots of fun things. Went to Brookfield Zoo, swimming almost every day, out for dinner with my family, a maternity photo shoot by my sister in law, I got to meet friends for dinner, Joe & I went out for a wonderful dinner to Asparagus to celebrate our birthdays and anniversary which are all in July, Grandpa DJ took the boys on a tractor ride, Joe & Isaac went to a Sox game, and 4th of July spent enjoying yummy food and homemade ice cream (if you’ve never had homemade ice cream you are missing out!).   Our boys are loving spending all this time with the relatives.  Every time we leave Grandpa & Grandma’s house to go somewhere the boys ask if we are going to go back there.  It’s going to be so hard to say good-bye when we do have to leave.  But for now we are enjoying our time here. 

Hopefully soon I can announce the arrival of our little girl.  I’ll try to be patient…

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Seth LOVES this song lately and sings it over and over and over and over all day long.  Enjoy!

Boy or Girl??

Will we be a family of all boys or will we have a girl?  Isaac would like to make the big announcement.  Watch the video and find out our big news…

Boy/Girl?

 

Okay, I figured out how to load it from You Tube for those of you who couldn’t view it before.  Check it out….

Oh and sorry that Isaac is scratching at his nose…no he wasn’t picking it, but it sure ends like that is what he was about to do Silly boy.

A little announcement…

For those of you who have not been told, or who are not on facebook here is our family’s most recent announcement:

If you only knew what it took to get these smiles from my boys…after they were done fighting over who got to hold what sign, I ended up barking like a dog and playing peek a boo behind the curtain and somehow that got these smiles out of them.  Prior to that were lots of tears.

We find out next week if this little one is a boy or girl, so stay tuned for our next big announcement.  I’m hoping Isaac isn’t disappointed since he’s already been calling the baby a girl.  I’m 17 weeks along and feeling great and also enjoying all the little movements of this little one inside me.   Most precious feelings ever.

Well, stay tuned for next week’s announcement….

Fun Times...

Summer is almost here. Well, the weather is already here and has been for awhile, but summer break will be here after this coming week. We are already enjoying more time together as a family since my husband has not been as busy as normal. I am so thankful for school breaks. My husband is so busy during the school year that we don't get to see him very much and when he is home is quite exhausted. So today he planned a bunch of things for us to do. We went to Coolidge Park, where Isaac had a great time running in the water fountains. We all took a ride on the carousel and Isaac & Joe rode twice. Seth loved it too. Then we went to Chick-Fil-A where we enjoyed delicious chicken sandwiches and Isaac got to play in the play land. After that we went home and enjoyed a nice nap. It's so wonderful to do things as a family. We are all looking forward to our family vacation in a few weeks when we head back to Indiana to visit family and friends. Ahhhh..... I LOVE Summertime!

Happy Mother's Day!

I am surrounded by some great women in my life. I am so thankful for my mom. She is the best example I know of how to give yourself up totally for others. She is best described as one with a servants heart. She puts others first always before herself. I honestly think that she wouldn't know how to put herself first and I can't think of any time when she has done so. We usually need to encourage her to go out and do something for herself. Or have her friends take her out. Otherwise she would spend all of her time serving others and putting herself last. I thank God for her and that she has shown me how to have a servants heart.

I am also thankful for my mother in law. She is a great example of how to be a Godly wife and mother. She cooks the most awesome food and always does it with such grace and elegance. I'm always impressed by what she does and how she does it with such a kind and loving heart. Whenever we stay at their house we all feel so loved and welcomed into their home. Isaac has been asking when we will go see grandpa and grandma lately and we are very excited that we can tell him we will be leaving in 6 weeks!

God has blessed me with a wonderful family. He couldn't have given me a better husband that compliments me and knows how to calm me when I'm frazzled or upset. I can be all in a tizzle about something and Joe can come and hug me and immediately I am much more relaxed. I am blessed with the two most amazing little boys. It is so fun to watch them grow and see their little personalities. The way they interact as brothers and love to wrestle...yes, already. I don't always understand it, I guess it's a boy thing :)

We also have some exciting news. Baby #3 is on the way. Due to arrive around December 8. We were a bit surprised by this little ones arrival. Not expecting to be pregnant so soon and Seth will only be 20 months old. Although I am encouraged when I see others who've had children much closer in age. A friend at church has a 3 yr old, 14 mo old and a newborn. So I know it can be done. I'm just nervous to have a baby in a new location, with a new doctor, at a new hospital and without family nearby. Thankfully the Lord has blessed us with friends right in our neighborhood and just not one family, but LOTS of friends we can depend on if we need help. It's amazing to see how God is taking care of us. He never lets us go. I am so thankful to Him for all He has given us. We are truly blessed.

For moms who need encouragement, this blog has really helped me focus on the little things lately.

My birthday boy..Seth – 1 year!

I can’t believe my baby is 1 already!  This is not only a celebration of his birth, but also of getting through this past year and all the changes our family has gone through.  We made it through this year.  Praise the Lord! 

Seth has no idea what all happened, but it will be a year to remember that’s for sure.  It’s sad to think he won’t ever remember living in Indiana or living near his grandparents…but he will have many happy memories of living here in GA.

Seth at 1 year:

- Says: momma, da-da, Ia-it (for Isaac), Uh-oh, All-done

- Does: So Big (arms up in the air), Waves Bye Bye, Motions All-Done

-Crawls all over and can pull himself up onto his knees and is trying to pull himself onto his feet

- Loves to snuggle and Sleeps Really Well (a huge improvement over when he was 8 mos and under)

- Adores his big brother Isaac and lately says his name ALL of the time

We are so blessed to have him as apart of our family.  God has blessed us more than we could ever imagine and we are so thankful that he gave us this adorable little boy.

He’s on the move…

 

This past week Seth finally learned to crawl.  I feel like so many other babies that I know that are around the same age or younger have been crawling for weeks or even months already.  He never liked being on his tummy and once he learned to sit up that was all he wanted to do.  For awhile I thought he would just scoot around but just recently he started to get on all fours and rock back and forth.  Then this past Sunday night he got his arms and legs going together and crawled a little ways.  Now he is all over the place and into his brother's toys.  Isaac isn't so sure about this and yesterday he told me that Seth needed to just stay on my lap.  That was his solution to keeping Seth out of his stuff.  I told Isaac that he just better get used to this because this is how it's going to be from now on.  Seth will always be his little brother and he will quite often be into his things.  Soon they will hopefully learn how to play together and share...right? :)   It has been fun watching these two interact and actually play together at times.  What fun they will have as they grow up together!
We've been sick around here for the past week and a half.  Head colds, runny nose, ick, ick, ick...  Hopefully we will all be better so we can go to church as a family this Sunday.  We haven't been able to do that for several weeks now because one of us has always been sick.  Stay healthy! Have a blessed weekend!

My baby is growing up…

Seth turned 10 months old this past Sunday. I can’t believe that in less than 2 months he will be 1 year old! How can that be? He is what we call our extreme child….extremely happy or crazy mad and screaming. It has been a joy to watch him grow and develop. I will be taking him in for his “9 month” checkup this Friday. Between Christmas vacation, moving and then a snow storm his checkup got delayed. So we will find out how much he weighs then. He is starting to get mobile. Trying to crawl, but doesn’t have the coordination down yet. He is trying though, so I’m not too concerned that he’s a little delayed than most babies his age. He has started to say “momma.” It’s so cute to hear, but the only times he has said it is when he is whining for me and wants to be held. He is now starting to be a good sleeper. Sleeping all night long, most nights and taking two naps a day. It has taken a long time for him to be a good sleeper, but now that he is I am really liking it. Seth adores his brother, Isaac. They have started to really interact with each other and even playing together a bit. Seth would let Isaac do anything to him and I often have to remind Isaac that Seth is still a baby and he has to be gentle. Sitting on top of him or pulling him by his arm or leg to get him to move is not a good thing to do to his little brother.

We are so blessed to have Seth in our lives and it will be fun to watch him to continue to grow. May God bless our children and may we as parents strive to lead our children in the Lord, so by His grace, they will grow up to love the Lord with all their heart.

I've got a bug

or I caught a bug?? I hate bugs...especially the cold/flu kind. And especially when they attack not only me but my kids as well. We've been suffering with colds for over a week now, but today Seth came down with a touch of the flu and then I got it this afternoon/evening. So not fun. I've been cuddling with my little guy all afternoon. He's been drinking pedialite and I've had gatoraide. My husband is not home tonight since he had to coach his basketball team. It's nights like this that I really wish he was home. Thankfully he'll be home all day tomorrow to take care of us. Hope he doesn't mind...especially after his long week at school.
Off to go snuggle on the couch some more...
hope you all are having a good weekend.

Update 12/5: Now Joe's got the bug. I'm really praying Isaac doesn't get sick. Poor kid won't know what hit him.

My Roaring Lion & Little Pumpkin

I finally got around to editing the Halloween pictures.  Isaac loved being a lion and Seth…well he kept the costume on long enough for me to take these pictures and then got really upset.  He’s supposed to look like a pumpkin, but with the way the top is shaped he kind of looks like a carrot :)  We went to the mall and then went out for dinner since it was Isaac’s birthday the next day.

ROARRRR!!!