Minor Moments ~ Volume 5

Luke was kind of hopping and jumping around today and said, "Look, Mommy!!! I'm all out of gravity."

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Luke and Mary Ruth were wrestling around in the living room today being a little wild and a lot loud. Bella Peace storms in the room, puts her hands on her hips, looks at me, and says, "I'll take care of this!!"

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Grace colored me a picture this week of a house. When she handed it to me, she said, "Look Mommy it has 5 bedrooms and a bonus room for school." Hum, maybe I've been dreaming out loud a little too much lately!

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Tonight during our family devotion we discovered that 6 out of 7 of our family members could suck their toes...you know if they wanted to, of course. Hahahaha!!! And apparently, some wanted to. Wanna guess which one cannot or even which ones did? Oh, what's that? You mean you don't really care who cannot or who did? You just want to know how we got involved in all this in the first place. Hummmm, well there are some things that should just stay in the family, you know what I mean. :)

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We got snow AGAIN yesterday! After we "debuted" our family home videos here on the ole blog and embarrassed my mother-in-love, she bought us a real sled. She grew up in Ohio, and I think our "poor man sled on a little hill" brought her shame. Hey, what can I say. At least I took them out there and tried, right?! I don't know if any of you actually watched our little clip or not, but if not you really should. Wesley and I regularly watch it for a good laugh. No cry! We laugh and laugh until we cry every time. There's so much fun and funny lines packed into those 2 minutes!!! I say all this to say, that we REDEEMED ourselves with this snowfall. It was only about 2 inches, but Wesley took the kids to a big hill and used our rich man sled. They definitely had a blast, but I'm not sure that the amount of laugher was any more!! :) I'll post a video soon! Now we are ready to say good bye to old man winter and HELLO to spring!!

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On a serious note, Grace's Bible is lost. AND, this is a serious matter. We gave her a nice big girl Bible as a baptism gift. It was/is a Bible just like my Bible. She sewed her on very nice Bible cover for it. We expected it to turn up and did not take the fact that it was missing too seriously at first. But now it's been missing for since before Christmas, we are starting to get concerned. She is growing more devastated by the day. It breaks my heart, because it's so special and sentimental to her. And to me. We finally told her the other day that it might be time to think about replacing it, and she burst into tears and said she absolutely does not want to replace it. She wants to find her Bible, another one just want do. She's got verses highlighted and marked already, and it just means to so much to her. So, would you join us in praying that the Lord would allow us to find it. And if you go to church with us, would you please keep your eye out for it. The Bible cover that it is in is a quilted fabric that is black and pink and it closes with pink ribbon as ties. I feel like it got left at church, but we've looked in the lost and found and everywhere else we can think of to look.

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I'm working on a post to go with the last picture of all of us decked out in camo. Coming soon!

Camo for a Cause

Isn't this the cutest picture!!! Can you guess why we are all wearing camo? I'll reveal tomorrow, or you know whenever I get a minute. :)

4 Months

Finally a 4 month post!!

Here's the official 4 month picture, although it's not my favorite. I had a lot of help on this picture! The kids have caught on to the fact that I do this, and everyone had a hand. Can you tell that Grace made the card!


Here's a look back

1 month


2 months


3 months


Here's a couple of my favorite pictures taken a couple days after Elizabeth turned 4 months old.



Elizabeth, Lizzy, Lizza, Lizza-bug, Lizzy Pooh, Dizza, Baby E - these are just a few on Elizabeth's nicknames. It's quite possible that no baby on Earth has ever been more loved.

Elizabeth, you are growing so fast. You are so smart and beautiful. So active, alert, and interactive with us. You like to try to imitate our silly faces. I even think you try to imitate our sounds sometimes. You get tickled and do a full body shimmy every time we smile at you.

You are still wearing 3-6 month clothing and size 2 diapers. At your 4 month appointment, you weighed 12 lbs even and were 25 inches long. I believe that you lost a little bit of weight while you were sick, but you seem to be on the rebound now.

You are still exclusively nursing about every 2-4 hours. It varies. You are becoming very, very interested in the things you see us put in our mouths. I'm thinking that we will be starting you on solids a little earlier than we'd planned/hoped. The big kids can't wait for this since they are looking forward to helping feed you. I only the other hand don't want to rush it!

You were sleeping through the night so good, and then you got RSV!!! Not good!! It was actually a pretty scary time. You had to sleep upright, so we put you in a bouncy seat at night to sleep for about 2 1/2 weeks. Since then, your nights and your naps are not on a real schedule, and well they are just off. We are working on that! Here's a picture of you sleeping in your bouncy during that time. No matter where or how you sleep, you like to stretch out!


Here's another precious sleepy picture!


For a few days you found your fingers and began to suck them. The same fingers that Grace sucked. We laughed and said that you looked like Mary Ruth sucking Grace's fingers. Hahaha!! Surprisingly, after a couple days you stopped trying and rekindled your love affair with your pacifier and your fist/hand. You aren't still trying to suck your fingers, but keep your fingers, hands, and fist in your mouth constantly.


You've got pretty good head control now, and you are so strong that we can even carry you around on our hip.

You roll both ways. When you were 2 1/2 months old, we counted 11/30/10 as your first roll from your belly to your back. Just a couple days before turning 4 months on 01/12/11, you rolled from your back to your belly for the first time. Even though you can roll both ways, you don't often do it. Maybe it's because you are not laid down much! :) Someone always wants to hold you. You LOVE being held so it's a win, win except for when everyone's busy and you scream your head off demanding to be held!

You giggle out loud all the time now. Your brother and sisters love to act silly and make you laugh!! It's music to my ears!!

Grace has gotten really good about being able to get you to sleep if it's time of a nap or if you are fussy. Grace is such a little Mommy. She treats you like you are her on. She has little need for a baby doll anymore. She's got the real thing!



One of your favorite times of the day is at night when you get your bath. We usually do this right after we get your brother and sisters to bed at night. You seem to know it's your time. You love your baths, and you LOVE to "talk" to us after bath time when we are getting you dressed. This is typically Daddy's job, unless he's working late. You must prefer Daddy to give your bath, because you always "talk" so much more with him. I said it was one of your favorite times, but it's one of our favorite times too!

I'm sure I'm forgetting things. I'm trying hard to etch these days into my memory forever. They go by so fast. Just so that I can remember, here are a few of my favorite things about you and our time together. I love the little bitty bald spot on the back of your head where you've rubbed your hair off. It's the only spot that you've lost any of your newborn hair. That little spot on the back of your head feels so smooth and sweet. I love the way you hold on to my shirt like a little monkey. I love to hold you sleeping in my arms. I love to snuggle with you in bed or on the couch. We don't get to do that very often, but I love it when we do. I love the way you light up when I look at you. I love the way your head feels in my hand. Growing so fast, but still so little. My hand completely covers the back of your head. I love how you love me and Daddy, Luke, Grace, Mary Ruth, and Bella Peace.

Here's a few other pictures to mark your journey from 3 to 4 months.

A picture of you from your first Christmas at about 3 1/2 months


I just realized that almost all these sweet pictures were taken while you were in the bouncy seat. You really don't spend that much time in the bouncy seat. I guess that's just when I remember to grab the camera! Or maybe that's just when I am free to grab the camera!! :)



In this last picture, you are just starting to hold, grip, and play with toys like this precious lamb rattle. You look so much like Mary Ruth in this picture!


We Love You, Lizzy!!

Minor Moments ~ Volume 4

Just out of Luke's mouth:

"UGGGGGHHHHHH!! I'm surrounded by girrrrls!!"

Um, yes, Luke you are surrounded by girls. You have the Lord to thank for that. :)

Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.
Psalm 16:5 NIV

Today's Word

These are the verses on my mind and heart today:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Romans 12:1-2

Here's a couple of big things that have struck me today about this very, very familiar passage.

1. "by the mercies of God" - a reminder that no matter how hard I try to present myself it is only by his mercy that I will have any measure of success

2. "be not conformed to this world" - I'm so familiar with this verse, but today I saw it in a different light. Today I really, really saw the first three words. "Be not conformed." It's so easy for me to see someone else doing something especially something good and think maybe I should be doing that too. Or maybe I should be doing it that way. But when I read on to the end it's clear that he has a good, acceptable, and perfect will that is customized just to me. Hallelujah!!! That's freeing to me on so many levels!

Copy Cat

Have I ever mentioned the fact that Mary Ruth has reflux? Well she does. Often she will wake up in the morning and be sick to her stomach (my nice way of saying vomit) for several hours. Then sometime around lunch she returns to her normal self. Well today was one of those days. My big brown eyed girl woke up miserable. My little blue eyed girl has a very stuffy nose. So, I've been cleaning up a lot of yuck if you know what I mean.

Remember when I was trying to come up for my word for 2011? The word that has found me so far this year is "sick". There's been a lot of that so far.

Somehow (the LORD!!) I have been in good spirits today in spite of it this crazy day. I've been grateful for the opportunity to love on and care for my little ones.

I don't feel like we are having the kind of school days we would like and my to do list is ever so long, but today....

The joy of the Lord is my strength. Nehemiah 8:10

I've had that verse and another on my mind and heart today. The other one is...

Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 2:22-23

I sat down at the computer to have a snack and rest for a minute while the kiddos are having quiet time and dropped by the blog of one of my favorite girlfriends, and she had that verse on her blog for today as well!! So I literally copied and pasted it to my blog! Her blog post today is also my story except she managed to include some cute sad face pictures. No pictures from me. At least not right now. Maybe later I will get to posting Baby E's 4 month report and adding pictures. Maybe.