Our Home

August 5, 2002 Wesley and I submitted a contract to purchase our current home. I was expecting our first baby. For several months we've been very seriously considering selling. We've gone back and forth with this decision. A little over a month ago we decided to pray once more for a specify length of time and then make a final decision about whether or not to sell. We set a date and said, "We will make our decision by this date." On that specific date, we learned that I was pregnant again. The decision seemed obvious. Last week I contacted the realtor that we planned to use and we began discussing a day to meet and make it final. Without realizing the date, we decided to meet this coming Friday - the date - August 5, 2011. Exactly 9 years after signing a contract for purchase, pregnant then and pregnant now, we will be signing a contract with our realtor to try to sell. If I believed in coincidence, surely this one be one of those times.

This house has been our HOME. We LOVE it. We LOVE our yard, our street, our neighbors, oh especially our neighbors, and many other details. I LOVE that we live in a cul-de-sac on the friendliest kid street in America. I LOVE that we can walk through our backyard to a county park. We walk over and feed the ducks, fish, play on the playground, our just walk. It's wonderful!! Oh and our trees. I LOVE our trees! We live pretty far out and the drive is usually inconvenient, but it is a beautiful peaceful drive. Many conversations between me and the Lord have occured on this drive! Selling it will definitely be bittersweet. It is our first home. The first home for each of our 5 children. We've made such wonderful, beautiful memories in this home. We known GREAT JOY here! We've also made it through our hardest times here in this home. I'm reminded of the night that Wesley and I laid on our faces on our bedroom floor nearly all night long and prayed for a miracle after learning that we had most likely lost our sweet Baby Samuel at nearly 20 weeks. The next day we learned that we had indeed lost our Baby. He and 2 of our other children are buried in a cemetery that I can see from this neighborhood.

I'm not praying for the Lord to sell our home. In this market, I'm not sure that selling right now is for sure right. I do know that it's not a great time to sell in general. What will that mean for us? I'm not sure if it's the best time for us to buy a larger house with a larger mortgage. BUT, I do know that we have peace about giving it a try. We are praising God for this home that we've loved so well, and asking only that His will be done in regards to selling this one and getting into another one. We will be at peace either way. This home is small for a family our size. We could definitely make good use of more space, but really I cannot say that more space is for sure a need.

So this is it. Our fleece. Our house will be on the market as of Friday. If the Lord wants it to sell, it will. If after a few months it does not sell, we will gladly prepare to welcome a new member into this HOME FULL OF LOVE. Full and like the title of this blog "running over"!!


Do you see my sweeties playing on the grass? Did I mention I LOVE this house? Will you pray with us - for His perfect will?

Have You Heard?

If you've been in ear shot of my children then you know. If not then this may be a surprise to you...YEP it's what you think!

We are EXPECTING!! Again. :) Of course, we are THRILLED!!

I'm sorry to dear friends and family who are just now finding out and finding out through my blog, but in my defense I've been SICK.AS.A.DOG!!! I've spent every possible second that I could sleeping off my current but temporary misery!!

Of course you know with me - there's a story!! I will share as soon as I am feeling better.

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Psalm 127:3

Minor Kids Can Dance

The video below is hyterical!! If you have a weak bladder, you might want to, well you know... :)



Are you laughing as hard as I have been laughing!!

I have no idea why Grace and Mary Ruth are dressed that way OR where Mary Ruth (or any of them) got her moves!! Certainly not from this Mama!! Must be from her Dear Aunt Rachael - the Zumba instructor!!

Did you notice how Luke referred to himself as a "ballet-er". I then use the words "ballet person", because the alternative of calling him a ballerina would have been more than I could handle.

Now go watch it again! Notice how Bella Peace is attacking her brother at the end. Who knows what he did to desire it! Feisty girl!!

Disclaimer: I do realize that everyone probably should not have been running around so close to Elizabeth. Could have been a recipe for disaster. So for the grandparents who are chewing their nails wondering if this is the way we operate around here, the answer is not usually - just sometimes. :)

Be sure to check out the other new post below!

Finally!!!!

I've had a few post I've been working on FOREVER!!! Finally they are up below. I've had them written, but just have not had time to add pictures. Now they are complete. Check out Elizabeth's new developments for the last 3 months!! (Or just scan the pictures!! That's the fun part anyway, right?) Also scroll down and look at the "New Record" post. I finally added pictures to the bottom of that post.

Now I'm working on adding updates and new pictures of my other kiddos. I know it's been so long since I've posted about them. I've been kind of partial to keeping up with Elizabeth's updates, because this is her first year baby book! HA!!

I do have a VERY cute and funny video of all the kiddos that I hope to get up very soon!

Of course by very soon, I mean like several days, weeks, or even months from now!!

One other note...the evolution of a swimsuit post will not be happening! In fact I will probably delete the previous post about that. The swimsuit did not work out as I had hoped/planned. :(

10 Months

Sweet, sweet Elizabeth,

We fall more in love with you with each month, milestone, and moment that passes. I can hardly imagine my life before you. We all LOVE you so much.

You have changed so much this past month. The biggest change is that you are now crawling. CRAWLING.ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE!!!! Girl, you try to get into everything!! We really had to start trying to teach you the "No" concept. We've had to start occasionally giving you a hand pop. It's necessary, but oh so sad. With only the slightest little pop on your hand, your little lip rolls out, begins to quiver, and you cry big crocodile tears. Sometimes we get this same reaction when we simply say no in a firm voice. You are quite sensitive when it comes to discipline.

You love to "talk" and you say "Dada", "Mama" (even though you are a Mama's girl you say "mama" far less often - I totally think you do this just to tease me! *smile*). You also say "Bubba", "Nana", "Bye-bye", and "Nah nah" while shaking your head for "No No". You imitate many words we are say quite well. For example, we can say, "Elizabeth, jump, jump, jump." You will attempt to repeat us. It's usually at least recognizable.

In addition to imitating things we say, we like to play with you by getting you to imitate many things we do. Example: If we drum on the table, you will drum on the table. If we shake our head no, then you will shake your head no.

There's no doubt that you understand and even comprehend so much of what we say and do. Another example: I can tell you not to drop food off your high chair tray and as long as I am looking at you, you will not drop food off your high chair tray. BUT, if I turn my head you will sometimes pick up a piece of food slowly, studying me to see if I'm looking, and when you think I'm not, you will drop the food off the tray. Yep! Time to get serious with the training!

Speaking of eating, you are eating more and more of what we are eating. Unfortunately this includes the rare fast food meal. You've discovered french fries and you LOVE them! Who can blame you?! I may me guilty of introducing some junk food to early, but I have been very diligent to avoid any sweets except fruit. Just today Grace ask if you were going to get to eat cake on your birthday. Sorry, sweet girl. But you are sweet enough without the added sugar. Your big sister Bella Peace has been our pickiest eater, and she is a sweet-o-holic. I think she got introduced to sweets to early. On the other had, we withheld sweets from Luke for a much longer time and he's our best eater and craves sweets less than anyone else. Maybe we will offer you some kind of healthy muffin in a cupcake liner. :) The only other change with your eating habits since your 9 month update is that we've replaced one of your afternoon bottles with a snack instead.

You are also wearing the same size clothes and diapers - size 4 diapers and 9-12 or 12 months clothes. Sometimes in smocked church dresses or hand me downs you can fit nicely into an even bigger size. A sweet friend of mine gave us some fancy one size fits all washable snap diapers that we use sometimes just around the house.

Unfortunately, you've decided to give me trouble with your naps again, but I'm pretty sure that is related to the fact that you are trying to cut several new teeth. As of this moment you still just have the 2 teeth on bottom, but I'm expecting news ones any moment. At least you are still sleeping very well at night. So long as we are home. You still don't sleep as good away from home. You are definitely a home body!

Your big brother and big sisters are as crazy about you as ever. They are still very helpful too. Occasionally Luke, Grace, or Mary Ruth will help me by feeding you a bottle. BUT, you do not accept their help as readily as you use to. I think that often times you already think you are as big as them so you don't take fondly to being held or carried around by one of them. Sometimes one of the big kiddos will offer up their arms to you in an effort to see if you will come to them, but you usually shake your head no and say, "nah, nah, nah".

We've been so blessed to be able to spend more time with grandparents in the last couple of months, and you've definitely noticed that there's something very special about grandparents. You might not call anyone other than "Nana" by name, but you definitely recognize and get excited about all your grandparents. I love that there's a unique bond and trust in spite of the distance that separates us.

You've started clapping and waving. Too cute!

We are working hard to teach you to blow kisses. You don't do that yet, but you still give kisses with a slobbery wet mouth wide open against our cheeks. You've also added a smacking noise when you kiss us.
Another cute thing you do is that you often hug and pat me or your Daddy on the back when we pick you up. Guess that's what we do to you! It's so sweet to get you up in the morning or at night from your crib. When we walk into your room, you are almost always sitting up on your bottom in your crib waiting for us. You instantly light up and lift you hands up to us when we walk in. I LOVE for you to lift your hands out for me to pick you up. I can never resist?!!

You LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being outside. Now that you can crawl, you like to crawl over to the doors and look out. You often look out with such longing eyes - well at least until Gina the puppy runs over to the door and entertains you from the other side. You love animals and squeal with delight when you see just about any kind of animal.

It's so hard to believe it's been 10 months since you graced our lives. You are truly a gift from God!!

8 months and 9 months

Of course, I'm behind on the updates. I have however been making notes here and there so that I could keep up with sweet Elizabeth's milestones. I also learned how to make collages online. I may have went a little overboard making a few. If you would like to see a picture in more detail, click on it to make it larger. Then hit your back button to return to the blog post.

Dearest Elizabeth,

If I had to chose just one word that best describes your development in the past couple of months, I would say "BIG". I one word not only describes how you are growing physically, but also your personality. You are "BIG" in many, many ways!! You have BIG blue eyes, a BIG bright smile, 2 BIG pearly white teeth on the bottom (no new teeth yet). It seems everything about you gets bigger by the minute.

Look how big you are laying next to Grace!


There's not much new stuff to report. Here are the highlights in your development over the past 2 months:

. You got much better at sitting up on your own, so much so that you can now sit up on your bottom in the tub for bathes. Here's a picture of the first time you sat up on your bottom for your bath. You were a little wobbly, but you had so much fun. I could not get you to look up at the camera at all, because you were having so much fun!


. You also learned to get back down from a sitting position when you were ready to roll again. And, oh boy, do you ever like to roll around. You are quite a busy girl!

. Unfortunately, right at 8 months you and I gave up nursing. You switched to formula by bottle. It's kind of bittersweet, but I feel confident it was the right decision.

. At 8 months you were still in size 3 diapers and 6-9 month clothes, but you were starting to old grow these. By 9 months we made the switch to a size 4 diaper and either 9-12 or 12 months clothing. You also have quite a few hand-me-down clothes that you can wear that are up to 18 months.

. You are still eating well. You take about 5 six ounce bottles per day, and you eat 3 meals per day. We are adding lots of solid table food to your menu and you are LOVING it! I usually try to give you a mixture of fruit and oatmeal for breakfast. Lunch consist of 1 to 2 jars of baby food. Usually veggies. Also I if we are having something that you can have for lunch, I offer you little bites. The same is true for dinner. You typically have 1 to jars + whatever I can dice up from our dinner. At least one or two of the jars each day are a meat and veggie combination.

You LOVE corn on the cob and any kind of bean.



. You sleep very well at home for both nap time and night time. You are on a very good 2 hour schedule. You are awake for about 2 hours in the morning before being ready to go back down for a nap. After that you will sleep for up to 2 hours. Then once again you are up for about 2 hours followed by another 2 hour nap. It looks something like this: up at around 8 AM, nap from 10-12, nap again from about 2-4, then we push to keep you up the rest of the day. Sometimes if you are going to be up late, we might still take a short afternoon nap. Bedtime varies between 7:30 - 8:30 just depending on what's happening.

. You do not nap as well away from home. You've had trouble with this off and on since you were born. I guess for you, "there's no place like home."

I'm so sure that I've forgot to record some things, but what can I say it's a busy life and Elizabeth, you are very much a part of what keeps me so busy. Hopefully when you are all grown up you will look back on this and appreciate what I did think to record. Here are just a few other favorite pictures over the past 2 months.

Bittersweet History Made Today

My baby girl started crawling today

and

Me and the kiddos watched the last shuttle lift off.

Yep, this is as much as I have time for right now. I've been working on getting ready for school among other things. I do have about 3 post saved in my draft folder waiting for pictures. One day.