Weekend :)

What a productive weekend!!! I'm feeling so much better about life in general!

I worked all day yesterday on the baby's room (thanks to my mom watching the big kids) and at 2am I was finally rinsing out my paint brushes and heading to bed! I got it done. The room that was once yellow is now gray. I know gray sounds like a weird color for a baby room. Just trust me....it's going to be cute. I'll give you a little hint about what the final product is going to look like: the guy at Lowes asked me if I was a Cowboys fan when I was picking out the paint.

No pictures yet because I still have all the decorating to do. But the curtains are ironed and hung. The bed is made (with all of Christian's old bedding). We scrubbed down the crib and changing table. And I assembled the baby swing...the one I couldn't live without when McKenna was a baby! I have a closet full of clothes washed and hanging in his closet. I have several packs of diapers and plenty of wipes. I really need to spray paint a few things, but you can't really do that in the winter because I'm not going to do it in the house. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that.

Oh my word, this is really going to happen! We might have to start a countdown chain around here because we are all getting so excited. McKenna is beyond excited. She talks about her brother every day and sits in the big rocking chair and practices rocking her baby dolls, so she'll be ready to rock her brother. In fact, she's assured me that she'll even take care of the diaper changes. I told her I would just like it if she would get rid of her own diapers :)

I THINK we've decided on a name. The kids have anyway. I guess they got tired of our indecision and they just picked a name and that's what they're going with. We have no middle name. I think I might just get to pick whatever I want for that (I think Ryan is done with discussions about names), so I've got to spend some time thinking about it. So until we've got the whole name figured out.....you're just going to have to wait!!!

I'm starting to get lots of people asking me when I'm due and when I tell them March they just about fall over. I don't feel huge, but apparently I look it to everyone else. It's flattering, really...I mean who doesn't love being called huge in a very polite way :)

Gotta go...I'm hoping Ryan will agree that I should most definitely go to Hobby Lobby right now to look for some cute stuff for the baby room. I struck out on etsy with what I thought I was going to order, so I've got to come up with a new game plan.



P.S. I am not, nor will I ever be a Dallas, Cowboys fan.

Dear Abby,

I'm so glad you came to my house to visit me! I had lots of fun decorating a gingerbread house with you. It was my very first time decorating a gingerbread house and I loved all the candy. I love you too. I tell my mommy all the time that you are my best friend.

Mommy thought I should show you what I did with that gingerbread house we made. She caught me in the act of eating it. I wish you could have eaten it with me because it was so yummy. Mommy had to put it on top of the refrigerator and then it disappeared.
I miss you and just wanted to say "hi."

Love,
McKenna

I'm THRILLED about this opportunity!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does anyone else out there have a hard time letting go of baby clothes??? I've never done it (until now). I have pretty much kept every piece of clothing that Christian & McKenna ever wore. I knew we would probably have a third child and so I was keeping the clothes for that child. But now that we know for sure that we're having a boy, I had a dilemma. What was I going to do with McKenna's clothes? I don't need them anymore. But they're so cute. There are so many memories attached to them. I can hardly stand to just give them away.

It was a year ago today that an earthquake shook Haiti. My heart was shaken at the same time and a year later I've realized that I am not the same person I was a year ago. Haiti is never far from my mind. I find myself praying for the children of Haiti all the time. I read several blogs written by missionaries in Haiti every single day. I feel guilty about the excess in my own life and in the lives of my children. And I feel the Lord constantly stirring my heart about the orphaned and starving children in Haiti.

There is one ministry that has become close to my heart. Whenever I have a few bucks in my paypal account, from getting paid to do a survey or from selling something on ebay, it never stays in there for long. It's usually sent off to the Rescue Center in Haiti, because I know that even just $3.00 is used to feed a starving child. The Rescue Center in Haiti is sort of like an orphanage, although most of these children have parents. They take in children that are close to death because of starvation. They save the lives of over 200 children a year.

Twice a year they fill a shipping container here in the United States and they ship that container filled with supplies to Haiti!! And I'm almost giddy with excitement over the fact that this year McKenna's baby clothes are going to be on that container!!! I'm shipping them to a missionary in Indiana. He'll pack them onto the container and these precious children are going to have McKenna's clothes. It's so much easier to let something go when you know it's going to someone truly in need!!!!

Here's a list of some of the other things they need:

•large safety pins
•crib sheets
•shorts of any size
•socks of any size
•boys and girls underwear of any size
•barretts
•plastic pants to put over cloth diapers
•baby shampoo, lotion, and powder
•hand sanitizer
•bumbo seats
•sippy cups
•spoons
•bowls
•q-tips
•toys-large and durable
•newborn clothes
•shoes/ sandals of anysize
•infant formula
•baby food
•baby cereal
•kids DVD’s or cassette tapes
•baby bottles
•pillow case dresses and aprons (sewing projects)
•toys for babies to hang in cribs
•brown baby dolls
•baby hats


So do you happen to have any of those things laying around???? Are you ready to pack a box for Haiti? Shoot me an email (judah322@hotmail.com) if you want the address of where to send your box. I can't post the address on this blog, but I can email it to you. You need to label the box "Haiti Rescue Center."

Christmas Morning - Part 2

I love Christmas morning. I know that Christmas is NOT about the presents, but it sure is fun to see the sheer delight on the faces of my children. To hear the laughter and surprise in their voices. It fills my heart with joy and I'm sure that's just how Jesus feels when He blesses us. I know that our Heavenly Father longs to give us ABUNDANT life filled with the JOY that only He can bring.

Matthew 7:11

"If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

I love that verse and how it sneaks in that little reminder that we are sinful, evil people. Which is so true, but I love picturing the idea of how much God delights in giving us good things. Ryan and I both agreed that this was probably the best Christmas we've ever had. It was fun and peaceful. We didn't go into any debt :) And we all felt very, very blessed. It was a wonderful way to wrap up a beautiful year of blessings in our new home.

Christmas Morning - Part 1

The night before Christmas....the scene was set!
And the next morning Christian was up first and was very patient waiting for his sister.

He got her pillow pet for her and brought it down because it was just taking her too long :)

Notice Christian peeking around the corner. He was so excited!

McKenna headed over to check out baby Jesus in the manger, until Christian got her attention.

Their first glimpse.

The giant froggy tent was a huge hit.

Then it was time to open their stockings. The first thing McKenna found in hers was a picture Christian made for her.

Christian was thrilled to have a Lightning McQueen watch.

Such excitement.

I loved it that they took their time and examined and exclaimed over each item. McKenna was thrilled to pieces that she got her very own "make up" which you and I would call Chap-Stick. And then there was the pink nail polish and the box of band aids that she was jumping up and down about. It was precious to see such delight over such simple things. A great start to our morning.

98%

I talked to a nurse today about my ultrasound last week!!! This little kicker is in the 98% percentile for weight! Am I worried?? Nope! I'll survive giving birth (notice I used the word "survive" and not the word "enjoy") and then I can enjoy the fact that I have a chubby little boy!



Christian was off the percentile chart for weight most of his first year of life, meaning he was over 100% for weight. He weighed 19.5 lbs at four months. That's a big baby!!! And he's perfectly normal now and even walked right on schedule.



I have a feeling they're going to pressure me to induce early and I'm not sure how I feel about that. With my first pregnancy I would have absolutely said "no way!!!" But I learned some hard lessons during Christian's birth. It was my midwife who recommended that I have a c-section with Christian and she even brought in the doctor to do it and I was having no parts of it. As a result I almost lost my precious first born. As long as I live I will never forget the silence in the room when I asked what Christian's apgar score was. No one answered because it was actually a (1) and they were busy resuscitating him. So these days I am most definitely going to weigh all my options. I'm going to pray about it and er on the side of caution. The goal is to have a healthy baby, not to be a hero! I know this is totally controversial and people have very strong opinions about childbirth. But I don't (anymore). So I'm not sure what to do. I guess we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it!!! It's kind-of funny, but a c-section scares me way more than giving birth naturally does. ha!

Conversations

Tonight McKenna was watching Little Bear and she told Ryan, "I want Little Bear to come over to my house sometime. He's a nice friend! I want to play with him."

Christian's told me this before, but since he told me again tonight it must be accurate:
C: I remember the first time I prayed to Jesus.
Me: You do?? When was it?
C: I think I was like three or four and you made me take a real shower for the first time. I was scared and didn't want to take a shower (starting to make me feel like a bad mom at this point). So I prayed to Jesus that I wouldn't die (nice!) and then I wasn't scared anymore.

Isn't that a lovely story of how Christian learned to pray??

Little Pink Driver

McKenna wasn't so excited about this present on Christmas morning, which was a real disappointment to me!! I was thrilled about it and could hardly wait to give it to her. I bought it this summer at Target when it was on clearance 75% off and that is probably one of the reasons I love it so much, because I love a good deal! But she was afraid of it. So we let Christian ride on it with her for awhile (even though that made them over the weight limit). And now she's Miss Independent!! She can even steer without running into walls!!

Doesn't she look so big?? She's really changing and growing up. I love to ask her about her birthday. She'll tell you that she's going to be three and that her birthday is in "Febrary" and that she doesn't want candles on her cake because she doesn't like candles.