Boo Hoo Hoo

He turned 8 this past week. 8!!!!!! That's half way to driving. 10 years 'til gone. He's growing so fast. Getting so tall. I think he looks so old in this picture.


Just yesterday, I remember spending my days laying on the couch with him asleep on my chest. Even in just the past year, he's changed so much. Just check out this post for his birthday last year.

BUT, this is the natural course, and I am so grateful that he is healthy and strong and growing both physically, mentally, and especially spiritually. It's just hard on the Mama!!

**I have another new post from last night below this one.**

Luke Loves Football

Just in case you didn't know...

...Luke loves football.

A lot.

When he gets to be with other boys

all he wants to do

is

play

football!!!

So when the Blakeman boys visited last weekend,

Luke had a GREAT time!!!

Can you tell?!!!

This is Luke when the other boys were ready to quit.

Poor Luke.

These boys had so, so much fun! I'm so glad that Luke had a chance to play with some other boys!!

Aren't the pictures so great! Go back and check them out again. Bridgett was taking advantage of an opportunity to test out her new camera. I'd be lying if I said I'm not coveting this camera just a wee bit. :)

On a serious note, Luke really, really does love football. Maybe too much. He's only played at home with family and friends, never on an organized team. He's never asked. Until now. We've got a big decision to make. Quite honestly, I think that football is not the best use of our time or his time. Much prayer will go into this desision. Goot thing we've got some time before we have to decide.

Pictures

Here's a couple recent pictures. These of me are not so great, but you know I try to keep it real.

This is my 39 week picture from today. My eyes are have shut. That's probably because I can't seem to sleep at night.


I tried for a good picture on Sunday, but between me napping in my clothes and Bella Peace napping on top of me this is what I got. Bella Peace is quite a ham and insisted in being in the picture with me. I look so totally bare foot and pregnant in these. Ahhh, the life of a mommy! Would not trade it for anything!!



Here's some other random cuteness!




Very, very soon I will be posting more cuteness all swaddled up tightly!!

Catching Up

Wow! I can't believe how long it's been since I've really had an opportunity to blog. My biggest hindrance has been that our computer crashed, and I haven't had an opportunity. But that is resolved now. It's a great story. I've got so many great stories to share. I've been keeping track on paper. It's doubtful that I will get to fully catch up here on the blog, but I will surely try. Life is good. Amazing good lately. But, also challenging and up and down. Oh, how I wish I could really share all the details of how God is at work in our lives, but I'm sure that time will limit me. And truth is, I'm sure I can't even see all the ways he's at work. It's getting late, but here's a super quick little update on everyone.

All is well. We are all healthy and good. Wesley is amazing and wonderful as usual. Luke is all boy, growing like a weed, and now has teeth that look way too big for his head. He's a big eater, and his reading has so taken off. He's doing so great. I'm so proud of my big, big boy. He's such a Daddy's boy, and a great help to his Daddy.




Grace's surgery went really well. She now has an innie belly button. She was Little Miss Personality the day of her surgery, and I think made quite a lasting impression on everyone who met her that day at the hospital. Everyone's so excited about Elizabeth, but I think Grace may be the most excited. She's so maternal. Also her birthday garden is doing so very well. I haven't really posted about that, but plan to.




Mary Ruth is such a great combination of girly girl and tom boy. She's always saying something so cute. I have no idea where she comes up with some of the cute things she does and says. She is a great big sister to Bella Peace who really, really looks up to her "May-Me". That's what Bella Peace calls Mary Ruth.



And speaking of Bella Peace. She's so not a baby anymore. Such a big girl. So independent. Want's to do everything her big brother and sisters do and wants to do it all by her self all the time. She's also obsessed with shoes. She's in to everything and quite a mess but so very cute.



And finally, Elizabeth. She's doing excellent! Still consistently measures great. Moving great. She seems to have made her nest on my right side, and she's always there right under by ribs. She's an active little girl. If the 4-D ultrasound is accurate, she looks just like Mary Ruth. We can't wait to meet her, but I so not ready for her arrival. I've got about 9 weeks, and I need every minute of it. I don't know if it's fear or intuition, but I have a feeling she's going to come early. None of my other children have come early except Bella Peace who was induced a week early because of possible complications, so we shall see.

As for me...well I failed the short sugar test. Took the long one. There was an error so I had to take the long one again. Failed it also. Today I attended a class for women with gestational diabetes and learned so much. I don't necessarily have it, because my numbers were just above the acceptable range, but I'm at least right on the edge and have several risk factors. The class was great and very informative. As of today, I will be testing my blood glucose 4 times a day with a diabetes monitoring kit. It's really not so bad. I'm also on an new diet. I'm feeling OK about it all. The diet is a good diet for anybody and is going to be a healthier new start for us all. My sugar levels were all over the place today, but I'm just getting started on the new diet so I'm expecting to see lots of improvement.

Well there's an update, not so sure it was quick or little, but nevertheless an update. More really soon!

Wow Moments

I've had a few wow moments in the past few days. Some big and heavy, some not so much. I wanted to share just a couple of the not so big ones right, because at the moment that's all I have time for. The big and heavy wow moments mostly stem from a Mom's retreat that I went on this past weekend. I'm working on a post about that for later. But for today, here's my not so big/heavy wow moments:

I promise not to post a picture every week when Luke cuts grass, but it really does make me think WOW.



Also recently I somehow got confused about how old I am. Somehow I've had in my mind that I was close to turning 34. Last night, I realized that I will not be turning 34 but 35 on my birthday in a few months. WOW!! I'm going to be 35!!!!! WOW, how do you forget how old you are? Oh, boy it must be that I really am getting old!!!!

And for my final WOW moment, today my OBGYN called me just to check on me. Dr. Conrad is an amazing doctor. He called and just said that I had been on his mind, and he wanted to check on me and see how I was doing. He asked if I had any cramping, spotting, usually symptoms, concerns, fears, etc. He said he really wanted to know how I was feeling at this stage on the pregnancy, and that he puts a lot of stock into a women's intuition. I told him that I really feel good. I feel like everything is on track and me and baby are progressing healthy and normally. I also told him I feel peaceful and hopefully about things right now. I ask him if he was calling because something had given him concern or had him worried. He said no just that he wanted to check in on me since it was a longer time in between my appointments, and since we are still in a critical time for me right now based on my history. Isn't that amazing that he would call me? WOW, what a great doctor! I'm so glad he cares. He's also told me in the past that he prays for me and this baby as well as for other patients.

Ok, so this was more than a couple, sorry! Did any of these WOW you too? Ha, ha!!

Growing

I wore real maternity clothes for the first time today!!! My current wardrobe mostly consist of skirts and jumpers which for the most part I've been able to still wear even though my belly has been growing. But, I've been starting to push it with my skirts. I can still wear my jumpers - BTW, yes I do wear denim jumpers and like them very much. They are extremely practical, comfortable, and modest. I love having big ole pockets on the front. I almost always have them filled with things like pacifiers, a pencils, my cell phone. I think they are perfect for the homeschool mom with many little ones. Think what you will, but don't knock it until you've been in my shoes! :) OK, off that soap box! So, anyway I can still wear them and probably will be able to for most of my pregnancy, but I don't have any maternity tights. I'm a very, very cold natured person so I have to have something on my legs. I have definitely out grown my regular tights and don't want to go out and buy some new ones with warmer weather just around the corner. So today I finally broke down and ask Wesley to bring in my box of maternity clothes. It was fun to wear something that I haven't wore in quite a while. Here's picture from today of me and our growing baby girl!


We spent a good part of the afternoon celebrating the 8th birthday of one of our favorite little boys, Caleb. He's like a brother to Luke, and Grace wants to marry him one day. I can't believe he's about to turn 8 years old!!

Here's a picture of him and Luke this week after the RA race at church.


Seems like just yesterday I took this picture of these same two little boys! (This is a scanned picture, and it's the best I could do. Sorry it's such poor quality and so little.)


I pointed out to Caleb's mom today that he's closer to getting his learner's permit to drive than not now, a point that she did not appreciate me pointing out. But YIKES, Luke is only 9 months behind him!!

Luke actually cut most of our front yard with a push mower today. I simply cannot believe he's big enough to do that!

These kiddos are all growing up way too fast!!