he’s here!!

 

Introducing…

Crew James Reader

August 13, 2011

at 3:52 pm

7 lbs. 6 oz.

21 inches long

There is something magical about having a baby. Your baby. The way you know just how they like to be held. The way their eyes light up when you walk into a room. The way you can understand every noise they make. The way your heart feels like it just may burst out of you when you watch them sleep at night. I just can’t seem to get enough of him.  “There is something about a boy that just gets you,” moms of boys tried to tell me.  Possible, but not likely, I thought.  I won’t know what to do with a boy, I know how to love baby girls.  Boy, was I wrong.  When they laid him on my chest for the first time, I was completely overcome. I knew that he was mine, and I was his.  I am so excited to get to know him, what gifts he brought here with him, what motivates him, what makes him unique, and why God sent him to me. So blessed to be his mommy.

So now we are home and adjusting to life as a family of 6. His big sisters cannot get enough of him and daddy is pretty darn happy to have another boy in this house. I am just so very grateful to have my sweet little baby boy home, safe and sound. He is the best and life is good. 

no training wheels!

We’ve had such a fun, busy summer and I have been so bad at blogging!  I just wanted to do a quick post – Ellie and Addie can ride their bikes without training wheels now!  Ellie wanted hers off – it was kind of a random request last night as she had never mentioned it before.  Well, L.J. took them off, and she did great!  Not one crash, not even running along side her for a while.  He gave her a little push, and she took off (and this is the girl who trips over her own two feet and walks into things all the time).  We were surprised!  But so dang proud.  Well, Addie was not to be outdone, and wanted her training wheels off too.  We were not so surprised when she did great on her first try as well.  She’s a pro.  The girl is athletic and competitive.  And barely 4 (oops, need to catch up on birthdays too!).  Grant and Mace were there to cheer them on. 

 

 

 

What a fun night. :)

Overheard 4

Just overheard in the last 24 hours:

Macie fell asleep really early last night and decided it was time to get up and watch Dora at 5:30 am this morning.  I was up getting ready for work anyways.  When I was headed out the door, I gave her a kiss and a hug and said, "Bye Mace, I have to go to work now. I love you!"  Macie said, "I go to work with you?" "No," I replied, "I have to go to the hospital and take care of the patients."  She responded, "But (fake cough, fake cough)- I sick too!!"  I sure wish I could bring her with me!

Last night I was laying down by Ellie and she had her hand on my belly feeling the baby move. She said, "Mom, I just love our little baby so much, and I haven't even met him yet! But I am a little worried about one thing."  "What's that?" I asked. "I'm worried I won't want to go to first grade because I will just want to stay home and kiss him all day!"

Last night I was in the other room and Addie yelled, "Mom, you need to come here right now, or I start freaking out!" Thank goodness she warned me. :)

This morning I was doing my hair and Macie walked over and pulled up her shirt. "Look at my belly blubbon, Mom! It's cute, huh?" she said.

Last night I was doing some reading with Ellie and we were working on sight words.  The flashcard said "good", but Ellie sounded it out and said "goed".  "Ellie," I asked, "is goed a word?" trying to get her to think through it logically.  "Umm, yeah, like we just goed to the pet store."   Oh right. What was I thinking? :)

Ellie was saying the prayer last night, and for about five minutes offered an extensive list of things we are thankful for and things to bless.  She finally concluded the prayer by saying, "and please bless all the people that have died, and everyone in the city, and everything in the town.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."  I guess that covers it.

Macie can't say the "s" at the beginning of words.  Some of her words that have become part of our family vocabulary are "lurpee" (Slurpee), "poon" (spoon) and "prinklers" (sprinklers). 

I sure love these little girls.  They crack me up and melt my heart every single day. :)

end of school hoopla.

School is OVER. And I am so happy about it.  Don’t get me wrong, I think school is great.  But I’m just excited to have my kids all to myself on my days off.  Go where we want to go and do what we want to do.  And we have big plans.   

Time is going by way too fast.  Addie was in preschool two days a week with Miss Tara.  She did such a good job with them.  And as sad as Addie will be when she realizes that she doesn’t get to go to kindergarten next year (she is dying to go), I think she will be okay because she will be going back to Miss Tara’s class.  Their end of the year program plans got rained out, so they did it under a church pavilion instead.

They sang and danced and it was super cute.

 

Ellie’s last day of kindergarten.

 

Ellie with her teacher, Mrs. Hyre, who we adore.  So sad to leave her!

(On a side note: see that freckle on Macie’s hand?  It is her only freckle and she is OCD about having her hands clean and wants it washed off all the time. :)

Aren’t they cute?

Man, I love these girls.  And I  am still amazed that I get to be their mom. When I watch them sleep at night my heart still skips a beat. My heart overflows more than ever with love for who they are, and who they are becoming, and who they help me to be.

the bathroom is FINALLY done!

We started remodeling the girls’ bathroom two years ago.  And while it’s been functional and mostly done for about 23 months, there was always something missing, or something I just wasn’t happy with.  But now, I can honestly say that it is done and I love it.

 

Here is the before…

and here is the after!

I painted the cabinet and added some cute hardware.  Also got a new faucet and accessories to match.

And a new mirror and a new light fixture installed by my own personal electrician. :)

And this was the kicker to finish it all off – that cute shelf L.J. made for the girls’ towels.  And the best part -

they have their names on them so there is no longer any fighting over who gets the Mermaid towel and who gets the Cinderella towel.  My sweet neighbor made these for us, and I could just kiss her for it – bath time goes so much smoother now. Thanks again Laurel!!

And just a couple more photos to show off L.J.’s mad skillz – these are some shower can lights he installed.  He also put four other regular cans in the other part of the bathroom.  When the girls are bathing they love to just turn on the cans above the tub and have the rest of the bathroom dark (they are on different switches).  They think it’s “magical.” :)

Here is a shot of the crown molding.  I love that he can do that, I think it just adds so much.

And one last one of the tile.  He’s Mr. Fancy Pants.  When he does it, he does it good. :)

I wish I felt the way I do about the bathroom about the rest of my house. :) One project at a time, I guess. On to the nursery!

soccer fever

We have some definite soccer fever going on at our house. 4 days a week!  Ellie is playing again this year-

Aren’t they cute? :)

And Addie is too! She has been so excited to play for the past year. Last year, every time Ellie would go to practice or we would go watch her games, Addie begged to play. We kept telling her, “You’re not old enough yet, just a little bit longer…” and then her day finally came for her first game! She was SO excited, and felt like a million bucks all dressed up in her own official uniform.  We arrived at the field, and no one from her team was there.  There were two older teams playing.  We called her coach to see what was going on, and he was out of town and had no idea… eventually we found out they changed the U5 schedules the night before – and most coaches/players didn’t know about it.  So she didn’t end up having a game, and this is what she did the entire time during Ellie’s game -

totally heartbroken with big old alligator tears running down her cheeks because she didn’t get to play soccer.  It was the saddest thing ever.  However, she was much happier last Saturday when she got to play her first game. :)

She was smiling the entire game – even when we had to go get her from the playground to sub in.  So glad we have a happy girl now. :)

We have a happy dad too – he is playing soccer three days a week.  We has been playing indoor soccer on Tuesday nights -

and has been doing so good he got recruited for an outdoor club team.  He’s loving it.  And kicking some butt.

So Tuesdays L.J. plays indoor, Wednesdays Addie has practice at 5:00, and Ellie has practice at 5:30, Thursdays L.J. has games for outdoor, and Saturdays, Ellie and Addie have games and L.J. has outdoor practice.  So if you can’t get a hold of us, you can bet where we’ll be. :)

the brother.

There is a celebrity at our house. He is here for nine days over his spring break.  And we are all head over heals about him.

He doesn’t get a break.  We all want to be right by his side, and he almost always happily obliges.  Sometimes he even gets rewarded with back tickles.  Today Ellie was doing her homework and she said, “Grant, will you sit by me?” “Why?” he asked.  “I just want you to be with me,” she responded.  And he did. 

We are soaking up every minute with this boy.  We love it when he’s here.

P.S. If you haven’t heard, the girls will have another brother to swoon over in August. :)