Happy New Year

As we close the last few hours of 2008, I reflect on the past 365 days and am so amazed at how blessed I am. During our Bible story with the kids tonight, I looked over my beautiful family and thought, "Wow! I have three adorable kids and one amazingly handsome husband." God just continues to shower our family in spite of the dorky things I do at times!

As I type this, I can hear the pops of nearby fireworks. Like the excitement a child exudes while watching bursting fireworks, so am I as I look at the coming year. Some new and exciting adventure has awaited our family with each passing year. Five years of marriage have been jam packed with so many happy memories that I can't even count them. So I sit on the edge of my seat in anticipation. Where will my family join God this year? What lessons will I learn? What new friends will I meet? What new memories will I make? Will Hannah finally be potty trained? :) I guess time will tell!

Happy New Year and may God shower you with blessings in 2009!

2 month appointment

I took Rebecca in for her 2 month appointment this morning. Our little Bec Speck has turned into a chunk of lead. Chad has repeatedly referenced my "super milk" for all three of our kids as they sprouted through their first years.

The youngest is no exception. Her weight today was a whopping 13 pounds 8 ounces (94%) with a length of 23-3/4 inches (88%). Even her tiny little head has grown to 15-1/2 inches (62%). She is already in size 2 diapers and some 6 month outfits.

Here are some pictures we took over the weekend. I was fixing the bow on her dress and she just snoozed away on the couch.




After church, she gave us some dazzling smiles. Please ignore the spit up that occurred just before Daddy took the picture. :) And don't you just love the hair that stands up on top of her head? It has done it since the day she was born. I learned from a friend that I can take that section of hair and just clip a bow to it. Amazing how such a hideous style on an adult can look absolutely darling on a newborn!!

Emerging Personalities

In spite of the difficulties that come with having two toddlers in the house, they can also be such a joy to observe. It is during these early years that their personalities start emerging and some cute little quirks appear.

Hannah has begun to develop strong relationships with all her "friends," which include Piglet, Penny, Mickey, and about a dozen other stuffed animals. Don't even try to tell her that they aren't real because she simply won't believe you. This morning, Chad and I heard her through her monitor calling out to Piglet when she woke up. Upon obviously finding him, she then sang to him. It was so incredibly sweet.

Here are Penny and Piglet. They may appear to be the same doll, but only to the untrained eye.

Next, we have Zachary. My energetic sweetie who loves cars and trains and won't listen to you even if the house is burning down. Did I mention that we are having his hearing tested in January? Seriously. He is getting better, but the boy will drive you nuts with his amazingly selective hearing and his unusual language that resembles Ewoks.

Here is his newest trick. He laughs over and over upon doing this. If Hannah wouldn't interfere, it would be hours of fun.

I try to treasure these moments because they can be so fleeting. It is hard to believe that my oldest will be four before long and that my youngest is already two months old. What a joy and a privilege it is to be a mother!

Live for Christ

I am constantly amazed, outraged, and sickened by the news reports regarding children. I believe such horrible reports are not exactly new, but are easier to spread with the expansion of the Internet. And perhaps these reports did not bother me so much before I became a mother and before I sought to deepen my walk with the Lord. I am so saddened that our world has methodically removed God leaving behind a chaotic mess with no morals in sight.

Just yesterday, we were studying Proverbs 6 which talks about some things that God hates. Yes, you heard correctly. God does hate some things. This passage is contrasted with Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus tells us things that God loves. Time and again, our Lord commands us to preserve life, among other things.

If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, be bold for Him! Be in the world, but not of it. Allow God to shine through you. As Paul says in the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians, be imitators of the Lord and let your faith in God be known everywhere!

Rejoice in the Lord and do not be afraid to live for Him!

Hannah's New Room

Hannah spent the night with Mamaw and Paw Paw Friday night so Daddy got busy and painted her room. I gave Hannah a few color choices, but I rejected her first choice of green and accepted the second choice of purple (to match the Dora lamp!). Since this room will eventually be for both of the girls, I chose a light purple to match the curtains and the few decorations that are already in place.

Here is Daddy after painting the last stroke.


The room turned out pretty good!



We moved her furniture to make more play room until the crib joins the room some time next year.

I find that I keep going into the room and staring at the walls with envy. Hannah's room was the first we decided to tackle in our bland white-walled home. Our hope is to paint a room every two or three months. With three small kids, I think that's a pretty lofty goal!!

Sick Kids and Trips

I have learned so much in the last week. First and foremost, I have learned that if a child throws up in the least amount and you were planning on a trip out of town, just go ahead and cancel the trip. If I had heeded my own advice, we could have avoided the troubling Thanksgiving that dropped in our laps.

It started the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I heard of some illnesses going around in the schools, but since our kids are not in the school system yet and don't have much contact with other children, I really didn't think about it. Plus I am just trying to keep up with my busy household so I don't have a lot of room right now to think about, well, anything! When Hannah threw up a little at lunch that day, I thought she probably ate something that disagreed with her. Both Hannah & Zach are prone to doing that, so no big deal in my book.

So then we move on to Tuesday. Packing arrangements have been going very smoothly for me and I ask Chad if he would like to leave for Mississippi on Wednesday instead of Thursday so we can be with his family there before the holiday. He was getting off early and has some extra time off so it's a go. Great! So I get busy packing for three kids.

Wednesday morning dawns and I go up to get Zach from his bed only to find him covered in vomit. It was all over him, his pillow, fitted sheet, cover, blanket, and one doll. Nice. Does that deter me? No. When I get set on a mission, I don't always recognize all the symptoms of that message that says, "Hello, dummy, will you just notice me?" I kept packing and watched Zachary through the morning. He would throw up and then just run around playing and laughing. He never had a fever and he simply didn't look sick to me!

After lengthy discussions, Chad and I decided to go ahead and leave at naptime after Zach had gone a couple of hours and kept some food down. We drove for just over an hour and Zach threw up everywhere. He and his car seat were completely covered. I had some spare clothes and changed him and we drove back home in holiday traffic, taking a lot longer to get home that it had taken to get to that spot! So now we have needlessly used up the few hours left of Chad's PTO plus I had to get out the car seat instructions so I could figure out how to remove the seat cover and clean it. We called it a day and decided to try it again the on Thursday.

Thursday dawned beautifully with no fevers (still) and no vomitting. Yippee! Off we went, meeting some family in Tyler for lunch and getting to Papaw's a little before bed time. All was great until Chad told me around 1:00 that Zach had thrown up again. Ugh.

And so the weekend went. Hannah got the virus next. Then me. Then Chad. Mercifully, Rebecca and Papaw never got it. But poor Pop Pop and Nana did.

So we traveled and descended upon the relatives with sick kids, crashed the party, and then spread our germs all around. We have become the relatives that everyone dreads. My absolute worst nightmare!!! So this will be the Thanksgiving I am choosing to forget. The only thing I am going to vouch to remember is my hard lesson on sick kids and trips.