The Miller Family

Thankful Thursday: Slacker Edition

2012-02-09T13:20:00.007-05:00

Obviously I haven't been thankful on a Thursday in a while now. But today I am! I am reading this book that I really don't like called One Thousand Gifts. I'm determined to finish it. Anyway, even though I don't prefer her writing style (jolty, crazy, poetic, long-winded, can someone say, "get to the point?") the Lord is really speaking to me through this book. I was at the gym this morning (my new thing - more for the babysitting and a chance to read than for the working out since unfortunately I think my c-section belly is here to stay), burning my 100 calories/hr on the bike, and I was almost weeping as I read one of the chapters! Why do I still not like this book? I don't know, but I don't. Anyway, must have been the Holy Spirit. I'm glad I already look pretty pathetic working out because I think this made me look even more so. But I digress.

Anyway, I do feel like the Lord has opened up my heart to noticing his blessings even more. Today I felt like sharing some of them. I know I should probably have better pictures to go along with my thoughts, but I'm no photographer and most of the pictures wouldn't capture the divine nature of the moments anyway.

Thank you Father for:

A free moment (and the desire) to make some bread while the girls surprisingly entertained themselves outside.

Extra time that I was able to spend with Little Ya because she had a fever on Sunday and couldn't be in the nursery. (Still cute as a button!)

Noa and Ruthie making great strides in sleeping together at night! We might have Lydia out of our master bathroom soon!

Wonderful in-laws who have been so gracious to watch the girls weekly, and now for our upcoming anniversary trip. What a blessing!

Our Lydia Kate turning 1!

Quilts, quilts, quilts!

70 degrees in February! No need for that hood!

Since this is the slacker edition, that's all I have for you right now. But I am thankful! I'm especially thankful that the girls are still sleeping and I can lay on the couch for a few minutes!

Lydia's First Birthday

2012-02-01T14:44:00.003-05:00

Here's some of the pictures...the preparation, really. The other images won't load right now, and they wouldn't load the other day either, so I'm going to call it quits for tonight and try to upload them another day. For now, here's a little of Grandma & Grandpa's visit and Noa with yellow balloons. That's all I got... :)

Ya With a Walker

2012-01-23T15:30:00.002-05:00

Visit from Grandpa, Grandma, & Murphy

2012-01-21T19:55:00.004-05:00

Here's a few pics in no particular order. We had a great time with G&G. Murphy was great. The girls loved having everyone around! Will have to do it again sometime soon!!

Murphy snuck in.

Pasty family pic! Almost everyone is looking. I'll take it.

Poor little Ya. Still at the point where she kind of looks like a boy, beautiful as she may be. It would probably help if her mom didn't dress her in black and green.

I remember playing this game with my dad when I was little. The girls loved it!

I think Ya is laughing at Grandpa's belly.

Russ had been taking all the pictures and wanted me to take some of him running around with Noa. Honestly, this is the best one. Not my thing! I understand the principle of thirds and all, but accomplishing that while they were running around is beyond me. I would like to point out that it looks like they're both superimposed on the picture. I think that requires some weird skill. Had to get the flash just right... But, blow the picture up and look at how happy Russ is! Not many could catch that...

Answered Prayer

2012-01-14T08:53:00.004-05:00

We are heading into a series about Prayer at church. I wasn't asking to be "enlightened," so to speak, but the Lord has done a lot in my heart in just a matter of days. I began this year wanting to get back to the discipline of daily time in the Word, which can be difficult since the girls wake up before the sun is up (and who wants to read before you have your coffee?), they are lovely little energy suckers during the day, and when they go down at night, all we feel like doing is laying around and patting ourselves on the back for making it through another day. So reading hasn't really been on my long list of things to do. But, funny thing happened. At the same time I was making this New Year's Resolution, Russ found his Ipod touch that has been lost for over a year. We never used it before, but when we found it I wanted to set up a Diabetes app that would let me chart my sugars better. So I started carrying that thing around. I'm not high tech in the least, so I have no idea what's available to me in that respect, but Russ suggested putting a Bible reading plan on there too. So I started a plan to read through the Bible in a year. Simple as that. I wasn't very hopeful, though, as I've started that many times before and only gotten so far. I have read Genesis about 95 times and then somehow, I trail off after that. Anyway, at this point, I'm still motivated. Maybe because it has only been 2 weeks. Maybe because I like Genesis. I don't know. I like to think it is more than that though. You see, the Word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12), and when we read it, we spend time with Him and he changes us. I have become addicted to His presence again. The more He helps me discipline myself, the more it becomes a delight rather than a chance to check off the box. (Side note: this book (I couldn't put it down) helped tweek my perspective quite a bit too. I would recommend it to everyone!)

I have started praying again. Not that I was totally void of it before, but I would easily get distracted, and easily look to myself for the answers. News Flash: I don't have the answers! Neither do you. We were created to be totally, exclusively, perfectly dependent upon our Creator and He loves the chance to get involved in our messy lives.

So, as any self-centered person would do, I started praying for the things that directly affect each and every day. I started praying for Ruthie. She is a precious little girl who is every bit of two years old, and most days she dominates the environment. I can't find enough things for her to do! She follows me around constantly, usually whining, screaming, or crying. If you haven't experienced that, it can get quite old, and it is hard to do anything besides pacify her. Very annoying. Anyway, back to the point. I started praying for her. I prayed for the other girls too, but it seems that she is at a stage where she just needs a little extra prayer. So within a day, I noticed a difference. I prayed for specific things. One of the worst things (among many) is that she is very attached to Russ right now and only wants him to do things for her, like getting her out of her crib when she wakes up from her nap. Since he works, this is my job, but she would have none of it. Every day, she would throw a fit for about forty five minutes if I was the one to get her up. So, I asked the Lord to help specifically with the nap time! The next day, instead of crying from her room when she woke up, she said, "Daddy, I'm up!" When I went in to get her, she just wanted to be hugged and loved on by me - not another mention of Daddy. The other girls were still asleep and we just hung out on the couch for a while, laughing and having fun. She looked around the room and said she wanted to clean up (umm... this has never happened) and proceeded to pick up every toy that was lying around and put them back in their basket. Seems like a small prayer, doesn't it? Seems like an insignificant little thing to somebody on the outside, but I knew that my Creator heard my cry. After months of a daily tantrum that strained my relationship with her and stole my energy for the day, it changed overnight! More importantly, I knew I was a child of God. I knew my voice mattered to Him. I knew he longed to come down to help me, even with the smallest things.

He also answers large prayers. He is big enough to do so. On Monday, we found out that Nana is cancer free! The prayer that we have been praying for months was heard! Not to say that it always plays out as we want it to, but in this case it did! We are overjoyed. He is a Healing God! He heard our little cries for help! He heard our very large requests! Honestly, they were only large to us. He easily holds the world in His hands!

So, I start a new journey this year of seeking God again. He knows that we are easily distracted, easily deceived, and very selfish. We like to pat ourselves on the back when we succeed rather than remembering He graces us with even the breath in our lungs. I want to remember that. I want to remember to thank Him for that and much more this year.

The guys are down....

2012-01-09T21:00:00.008-05:00

because Christmas is over. :( This is what Noa says every time we get in the car (speaking of the yard decorations people have up, you know, the nativity scenes, the big Santas and whatever else). So ironically, I'm finally able to post some Christmas pics because Christmas is over! Here they are in no order.... (who has time for order anymore?)

Sweet cousins!

Overjoyed on Christmas morning!

Awake for 25 seconds and already eating candy...

Not so great. Ya is crazy. Thanks for trying, Noa.

Hmmm. Still strugglin'.

A little better? I don't know. Impossible task.

Ruthie wanted "Gammy" to see her "Gammy jacket" (that my mom bought for each of the girls).

And I'll leave you with a cute little bum. Is this the sweetest thing you've ever seen, or what?

Sweetest Baby in the World

2011-12-21T21:14:00.002-05:00

Here's a little Ya for ya. :) We have been so blessed to have her as part of our family and are thankful that God hand-picked this sweet little thing for us. I can't imagine life without waking up to her precious smile (full of teeth!) every day.

Church Christmas Program

2011-12-18T21:17:00.006-05:00

The look on Noa's face says, "Hey, everyone! Look at me! This is my debut!!" More on that in a minute...

What do you want to do on an abnormally hot day in December? Go outside in the front yard and stand by Mommy's car! Of course! It's the place to be!!

A rare moment, indeed.

Noa's into scarves lately.

And now back to the Christmas program. It was 5 minutes of pure bliss!

O.k. So I'm a little weird...

2011-12-03T07:52:00.006-05:00

Why am I taking (and posting) these weird pictures? I thought of a great idea! I was trying to think of things to put in the girls stockings and I decided to do a photo shoot of their toys. Noa was SOOOOO into the idea! She got her babies all ready and started positioning them for the pics (albeit they were stuffed in the back of the couch, but that's how she wanted them). So, I picked up 2 little photo books at the dollar store ($2) and printed off all of these pictures, and I'm sure her and Ruthie will go crazy over them!

Here's Hooie changing his diaper (Ruthie's idea).

Noa, a proud mommy. When I showed her the pictures, she kept saying, "Awww. They're so cute. She looks gorgeous! Awww... sweet girls." Ha! :)

This is the weirdest one!! Look at those eyes!!

Here's some other pictures I found from when Mom & Abby were here. We went to the pumpkin patch with Noa's class (even though we really couldn't find them) and got some pumpkins!

Sweet little Ya!

A normal morning for Daddy. Wow. What do you do with all that l.o.v.e. ???!!!!

And I will leave you with this incredible picture of Babers. Any guesses on what she was eating?

M&Ms! How can anyone make M&Ms that messy and disgusting. Babers will find a way! And as we were carrying her to the bath, she proceeded to put her gross handprint all over the walls of the bathroom. She still talks about her M&Ms and is very sad that we wiped them off the wall.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

2011-11-24T07:22:00.001-05:00

Busy and Sick. Still Beautiful.

2011-11-14T20:47:00.009-05:00

Sorry for being a little MIA lately. October slammed us right in the face and we haven't stopped going, going, going since then. I'm over it, if you want me to be honest. Had Dan's wedding, Mom & Abs in town, Russ had the Man Retreat, the whole family went on the youth retreat and we've been in and out of sickness the whole time. Everyone is over the coughing, snotty, congested mess except me and Lydie. Blaaaah!!!!! I just want my normal voice back! And Russ and I need a date! Bad! So bad! A good date though! Not one that is just like an hour and a half at a restaurant we've eaten at 30 times. I'm talking a really good date. We need to get out of Dodge! Our kids are very, very present all the time. I'm sure that's how everyone's kids are, but lately we've been feeling like they are every where we turn! And if they're not right there, we can hear them destroying something in the background, so we're hunting them down! Ah! Anyway. Been real bad with taking pictures lately. We did have these gorgeous photos taken by Sally. I love them. She was able to capture each girl's personality perfectly. I need to weed through them to print some off for our house... The to-do list just keeps growing. Anyway, here's a few of my favorite shots of our lovely little ladies. I heart them!!!

Noa wouldn't stop posing. Cute!!

Stop it Babers. You're killin' me.

I think Lydie thinks this is a smile. :)

Yes, Hooie is officially part of the family. Even made it into the family photo shoot!

Notice how Noa is stealing the cherry from Ruthie. Caught red handed!

Grammy & Abby Visit

2011-11-02T14:17:00.005-04:00

We have a lot more pictures on a different camera, but I thought I would post a few pics I have from my camera. We loved having you, Grammy & Abs!

Just bein' sweet

Playing at the park

Reading the books Grammy bought them.

Someone thought she was such a big deal in her new wheels!

What an awesome Grammy. She let us run in the sprinkler when it was freezing outside!!! She's WAY better than Mom!

Come again soon!!!!!

Loins

2011-10-28T14:27:00.001-04:00

Bee Cool at Bee City

2011-10-19T06:57:00.005-04:00

Some of us moms decided to take the kids to Bee City - about an hours drive - for a little field trip! Ya-ya stayed home, which was perfect because there really wasn't any place for her to crawl around, which would've resulted in a major back ache for me. Anyway, the kids learned about bees, saw some bees, made a craft with bees wax, poured honey, and saw all kinds of animals at the petting zoo. The kids really enjoyed it and it ended up being a nice outing. Here's some of the group listening to the rules. I keep looking at this picture thinking that all of these kids are coming from like 7 families or something. That's a lot of kids! And a lot of kids PER FAMILY! Wow.

Look at how attentive they are! Honestly, there were so many rules, I couldn't keep them straight. I'm glad the kids were listening in this moment, but I'm sure we broke every rule mentioned, several times...

We had fun crawling on the fake animals too!

I'm sure Noa and Evie are talking about who gets to sit on the turtle and for how long.

Evie won!

This picture was taking right after one of Ruthie's major melt-downs. She looks so content here though. They were very interested in filling up their own honey bears with honey.

Here's the bee colony that the kids got to see. Noa was pretty fascinated with the whole thing, but afterwards she pulled me aside and said, "Mom, now I'm gonna show you the real bee..."

And here it is... the real bee. :)

Precious little Eden. This is Lydie's friend - born a week later - and she was a busy little bee herself! Crawling everywhere!

Last, but certainly not least (these two wouldn't stand for that), here's Ruthie and Lulu, two middle children living up to that stereotype quite nicely. No smiles even though we asked 100 times... They are definitely kindred spirits in their approach to life: physical, passionate (you could also insert "crazy" here. "Passionate" is our positive spin on what's really going on.), influential, beautiful, my-way-or-the-highway type girls...

Thanks Rhoda, for organizing all of this! We had a fun day and look forward to when we can BEE COOL at BEE CITY again... :)

Noa's First Day of School

2011-10-06T09:24:00.006-04:00

But first... The Lion's cheerleaders are baaaaaaaack!!!!!! (Please forgive Noa's short, short, short outfit - we are getting as much use out of last year's outfit as we can!)

Here's a little picture of a very over-tired mommy and her Ya-ya.

Beauty queen Noa and her chalk drawings below. The first is a rainbow she copied and the second is her first self portrait. Not bad!

Lydie's new face

And finally, here's Noa on her first day of Preschool! We were rushing around so much this morning, I'm glad we squeezed this shot in! She was wearing her new school tennis shoes and her new jeans. She did so well! Before we left, I told her we would probably have to leave blanky and kitty (her security things) in the car because we can't take them to school. She said, "Mom, I'll just leave them at home because that's what big kids do." Whoa! Big girl! She was a little clingy when I dropped her off. She was very nervous and shy with her teacher Miss Adelle, and the other kids, but they said she had a terrific first day. She went potty all by herself (and even told them she had to go), learned all of the rules of the classroom, and when I picked her up, she was busy on the playground and hardly noticed I was there! Afterward, we stopped at a coffee shop and she got to pick out a huge cookie because she was so brave. She kept saying, "Mom, I am soooooo brave. I went to school all by myself! And Ruthie didn't go!" I enjoyed my 3 hours of freedom, but I would be lying if I made you believe I wasn't thinking about my Noa-girl the whole time. :)

Ya-Ya

2011-10-04T07:26:00.002-04:00

Just had a family photo shoot, so better pics are on the way. Ever since Russ got his Iphone, we've been taking a lot of pics on it and I have been lazy with my camera. Gotta get back in the groove! We've had an extremely busy September and October is looking the same. Last week Noa and Ruthie were sick with some virus, and Noa was throwing up because of it. So sad. :( Those two are back to normal this week but now the rest of us have some post-nasal drip throat thing. Blah. Anyway, Noa is going to start going to a little preschool on Thursdays, so I'll have to post pics of her first day this week. She is sooooooo excited, but I bet she'll be shy on her first day. I'm going to stay there for a little bit with her. Maybe I'M the one having a problem with it! Probably. Anwyay, to hold you over, here's a sweet little picture of our Ya. It's official. Lydie's "official" nickname is Ya-Ya, or Little Ya. And she is still the sweetest little baby ever!

Nakies!!!

Girls puttin' on a show at B&N

2011-09-28T20:35:00.001-04:00

Lifelong Friend

2011-09-13T08:31:00.000-04:00

When we were up in Michigan a few months ago, we scheduled the trip at the very last minute. Like a day before! It isn't the easiest thing to cart 3 babies around while trying to manage their very particular sleeping habits, eating rituals, and tantrums. I wouldn't really call it a "vacation," it was more of a change of scenery. :) We needed a place to stay while in Cadillac, so we once again emailed my friend Betsy and told her we were planning on coming THAT WEEKEND! She responded something like, "I just want to make sure I'm hearing you correctly... You mean in about 2 days?" Yep. Get ready! So, in typical Betsy-style she had everything perfectly ready upon our arrival and let us take over their basement (well, and the rest of the house too, if you know anything about toddlers), and come and go as we pleased, all the while having food ready for us if we should need it. I'm talking good food. Full meals. She even invited my mom and sister over for dinner the last night we were there so they could see the girls one last time. This was a really sweet blessing for me. (Side note, we now have too many people to stay at Mom's house. We are growing way too fast!)

Anyway... Betsy is definitely gifted with hospitality. I especially notice it since I am most definitely not gifted that way! In the last few years, she has hosted us on numerous occasions. We joke that she always has a different house every time we come (sometimes in a different state) and we always have a new baby. I think her kids will be disappointed if we don't have a new baby next time we come! But, more than that, Betsy has been my friend since birth. We were in the womb together, she came out in March, I arrived in October of 1977. We grew up going to the same church, even became pen-pals when my family relocated, and have continued the friendship through marriage, babies, etc... I love Betsy and her family dearly and I wish we lived a whole lot closer. I'm sure I would be at her house every day and forgo raising my kids, so maybe that is not the best idea. Anyway, to show our appreciation I decided to make her a quilt since she kept hinting that I needed to send one up to her! I bet you thought I wouldn't have the time, Bets! And really, I don't. But, I had a lot of left over fabric from Linda's quilt (the blue side of the Kumari Garden line), so I went to work making this little ditty:

The last star quilt I made was 15 years ago. I cringed while writing that, thinking to myself, "Am I really that old?" It was a different kind of star though (I think called the Ohio star, but I can't totally remember) and I wanted to try my hand at these. Not too difficult, but if you look closely, you'll see that none of my stars really have points, sure sign of an amateur. Even so, the effect is still the same, right?

I decided to stipple again. I thought it would be a nice, round contrast to the square looking stars, and it is easy, so double bonus!

The fabric for the back wasn't from the same line, but was totally on sale, and I thought it went well. It wasn't until later that the leaves reminded me of a marajuana leaf (without the points, but I think with the same number of leaves), but Betsy is the last person on earth to smoke pot, so I don't think she'll notice... :)

I also made a TON of binding for Linda's quilt(my favorite part of quilting - isn't that weird?! But, I love it!), and it already coordinated so well with the fabric, I decided to use it for this quilt too. I love it.

And, with practice, I am getting a little better at mitering my corners.

I *love* this quilt. It is hard to say good-bye, but I know it is going to a better place where little kids won't get their slimy fingers all over it. :) Betsy, I did realize that I got so excited about sending this out, that I forgot to clip all of the thread from the quilting. When you get it, you'll probably want to clip any long threads you see. Might as well make you do something. :)

Queen of the Fairest

2011-09-06T12:39:00.003-04:00

I've got my fall candles burning even though it is still 85 degrees outside. Fall, I need you! Hurry up! At least today is a little bit rainy and windy. I am so sick of summer! We've been all princess-y around here lately. The girls have been enjoying their dress up clothes more than ever before! Yay!

Noa keeps prancing around saying, "I'm Queeeeeeeeennnnn of the faaaaaiiiiirrrrreeeesssstttt!" I think she's trying to say she's the fairest of all, but somehow it has become a twist on that phrase. I've heard that I used to always say, "I da queen." So, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I guess.

Ruthie actually likes to wear these earrings around for quite a while. I am so surprised she doesn't rip them off right away, but I think she feels pretty. So cute!!

Noa was helping me go through a bin of material the other day and she found this scrap of fleece (why did I ever have this??). Anyway, she just saw some pictures of a friend's wedding, so all she wants to do now is pretend she has a strapless wedding dress on. Not too shabby for a scrappy piece of fleece pinned with one pin!

I found a junky old $3 shirt at the dollar store and made this other little short wedding dress for her. It actually fits Ruthie a little bit better and I think Noa prefers the fleece. Oh well. Many more years of dresses to come! :)

Princess Babers!

Just a normal day.

Ruthie drove a play car off of a deck yesterday (I didn't see it, the DADS were watching the kids) and cut up her eye. Then this morning I heard a big THUD in the other room and a bunch of crying. She tripped and hit her head on the coffee table going down, hence the line above her eye. Lookin' rough! Poor thing. But, I guess just a few typical days around here.

No Lydie pics. She's pretty uncomfortable lately as all of her top teeth are coming in at once! Will have to post the update when they're in! I just finished another quilt, so pics coming on that one too!

Random Iphone Pics

2011-08-29T21:28:00.005-04:00

Russ took the girls to see Nanny & Pappy today (free time for me!) and said that Ruthie was hugging Nanny and wouldn't let go. Ruthie is the BEST hugger! If you haven't experienced it, you must!!

The girls have been sleeping in the same room (minus Lydie) and this is how Russ found them this morning... Hmmmm.. Wonder how much sleep is actually happening. Actually, I know it is much less since we listen to them crack jokes every night.

Lydie's friend Ryan in Tulsa! It was great having another kid around to keep Lydia company. She missed her sisters so much and Ryan was so sweet to her. When we skyped with the girls, Lydie perked up and smiled when she heard their voices on the computer. So sweet.

Sunday morning outfit shot.

Ruthie wanted to sit on TOP of Nana when she first saw her after the surgery, but had to settle for right next to her, as close as possible...

We took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese for Ruthie's birthday dinner. They LOVED it and only Noa knows about things costing money, so it was pretty cheap. $3 goes a long way for toddlers! Notice Noa's outfit. I think we were just too lazy to make her change. She, of course, chose it. I did not.

Pic we received while in Tulsa. I don't think the girls missed us too much. I love this photo!

Normal evening on the couch. Everyone is actually looking at the camera and smiling, so even though it isn't great, had to include it.

Mascara anyone? How about freckles?!?!?! When is Russ going to pass on his freckles?! Come on!

And with that, I'll say good night. Sorry I've been so slack with the blog lately! Maybe the heat has zapped all of my strength. Maybe it was the hurricane. Either way, I've gotta MAKE myself do it lately... Love ya!

Computer Problems

2011-08-18T13:30:00.003-04:00

Yeah. My computer finally broke down. We now have a new one (and I am using Russ' old one) but it has really been a process getting everything transferred over to his new one. So I have been left without a computer most days. I think we finally have it straightened out. Anyway, haven't been able to update things as usual. Here's some pictures I found of our Michigan trip.

Typical.

Yaya trying cereal for the first time. She loved it! Unfortunately, I am too lazy to give it to her most of the time.

Ruthie had a Dora ("Doo-wa") party for her birthday. It was small - just family - but she felt like a super star. She LOVED it! I think all of our pictures are on Linda's camera. I only have a video. Maybe I can upload it.

And now for a Ruthie expose...

Surgery

2011-08-16T21:00:00.002-04:00

For all of you who have been praying with us, here's the latest.

Linda's surgery was today. She was up at the hospital to prep for it all day yesterday and the surgery started early this morning. It took all day - I think 10+ hours - and the results are good. From what I understand, the remaining cancerous tissue was larger than they thought it was going to be, and because of that they were thinking about removing a kidney as well (this was not in the plan), but they didn't end up having to do that. Thank you Lord! The removed what they needed to, did not find any more cancer anywhere else, and she is recovering now. The doctors were very positive about the way the surgery went, how they think her recovery will be, and if all goes well she may be discharged as early as Monday. Her birthday is next Wednesday, so they may even be back in Charleston on that day. Pray that that happens!! Wouldn't that be wonderful?!

All in all, we know that she is in the Lord's hands. We thank the Lord for His goodness today and everyday and we are so thrilled that they did not find anymore cancer. Please continue to pray as there's still a long road ahead.

Good and gracious Father, today we thank you for your awesome care and concern for Linda, for a successful surgery, for preserving her kidneys, and overall for keeping her safe, and we place her recovery in your hands. God is good!

Nana's Quilt

2011-08-06T09:53:00.003-04:00

"Who has the best Nana in the whole world?"

"I DO!"

This is something the girls are always shouting at the top of their lungs. And it is true! This is a picture from when Noa was born. Nana has been a great help with the girls over the last few years.

Sadly, she'll be taking a tiny break from her "Nana responsibilites" for the next few months as she undergoes surgery and chemo to take care of the aggressive cancer they found in her bladder. We decided I needed to get to work on a quilt to spruce up her hospital room, as her stay will be at least a week, if not a few weeks. I was really wanting to try one of these cross quilts, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity. I originally wanted to make all of the crosses red to symbolize the blood of Christ, but later thought that would be a little too serious since there were already so many serious things taking place. So, later I decided on the Kumari Garden line because I thought it looked like her. It also had a trace of red running through some of the fabrics, which tied it back to my original plan. :) So... I thought it was a great, tangible thing to remind me to pray, sing, and speak life over her as I assembled the whole thing.

I love how it turned out! So girly and fun and bright!

I also liked the butterfly fabric and of course it reminded me of our life in Christ.

The back got a little bit "piece-y," but maybe it looks a little more vintage that way. I like it.

Don't look too close because you are sure to find many mistakes. But all in all, I think it blessed our Nana. :) My prayer is that she will be kept safe during the surgery and chemo, that the best possible outcome will take place, that she would trust the Lord and feel his perfect peace surrounding her constantly, that those who see the quilt in the hospital would ask about it and hear an incredible testimony of God's grace and care for us, that those who don't know Christ -whether family, friends, strangers, whoever!!- would come to salvation in Him as they see the Lord at work here, and lastly,that all of this would go as smooth and quickly as possible so our girls (and Micah) can see their Nana again soon... Please pray with us!!

One Heck of a Post! Videos too!

2011-07-27T21:23:00.003-04:00

I can't believe I forgot to post these! We had such a fun morning at the park a few weeks ago and ended up in the water fountain.

Totally worth it!!!!

After we stripped them down they showed an amazing amount of confidence wearing only diapers. Check out Ruthie, keeping watch!

Afterwards, we ended up at a coffee shop/bakery on Johns Island. We loved our special morning with the fam!

Oh my goodness. I can't get enough of this sweet video. These two are buddies.

And here's our typical dance party we have at least once a day. Go Babers, go!!

Can't get enough of this sweet baby. I swear, she really is the sweeeeeetest little girl!

Until next time, Michigan...

2011-07-20T14:17:00.009-04:00

But first... what is going on with Babers' hair? It is as if a banana clip is holding it up, but I think it is just greasy!

Quick trip to Seabrook/Kiawah Island before we decided on a whim to visit Michigan.

Grammy's house! Noa was Cheeto crazy on this trip!

Not sure why I don't have pictures from Mark & Betsy's house. I'm always better at taking pictures towards the end of the trip when I realize time is running out. Thankfully Betsy took these pictures.

The second half of our trip was at my Dad's house. The girls loved playing at the mall and riding the carousel.

"Coo Crith" ("Uncle Chris" in Ruthie's language) and Daddy were nice enough to ride along with them twice.

Mommy & Daddy's night out to see the stupidest movie in the world. We still enjoyed our little break! :)

More pool time at Dad's.

We drove all the way out to pick raspberries but it was closed!! They were nice enough to let us visit their petting zoo though. The girls loved the goats and Noa especially loved feeding the baby goats.

Noa is less than enthused about Mommy making her stand by the growth chart in the 95 degree heat...

Quilting Again

2011-07-01T13:20:00.001-04:00

And loving it! I wanted to make quilts for the girls' beds and spruce up Noa's room a little bit since it has been so random for so long. Hard to get motivated though, when toys are constantly everywhere. Anyway... found this beautiful fabric line called "Just Wing It" and I swear these pictures do not do it justice. They pinks probably look more red than they actually are. Anyway, I love it.

I always love a simple patchwork quilt, so thought I would take the sting out of it by ordering strips of fabric (better known as a jelly roll) rather than cutting it all myself. Come on, people! I have small kids! Lots of them! Anyway, it was a great way to get the whole line too.

Either way, it was still a lot of cutting and sewing tiny squares, but I love the result. Love, love, love it. And, one day when I am able to line up the corners perfectly, I think I will be both proud of myself and sad that it looks less homemade. :) Here's the planning of Noa's quilt. I see all the great quilting bloggers do this (even with patchwork quilts!) and I actually eliminated this step for Ruthie's quilt and it turned out pretty much the same with a lot less work. ;)

No, that isn't a "z," it is an "N" that I appliqued on one of the squares. I love how it blends in. It is kind of like a Where's Waldo quilt, except the girls already know where their letters are. I thought it would only be fun that first time, but they seem to love finding their letters over and over again.

After everything was pieced together I taped the back to the table...

placed the batting on top of that...

put the top layer on and pinned the layers together. After machine quilting a little bit (maybe about 1/2 way through), I had to re-tape and re-pin. It was worth it to avoid the bunches.

Machine quilting a bunch of swirlies (stippling) - this part makes me soooo nervous as I'm constantly concerned that I'm getting areas that bunch up after all of the previous hard work. The pinning made a lot of difference this time though, and I didn't get any bunching on either quilt. Why am I blogging this like a tutorial? Who is the last person you want to reference for quilting issues?! Me! I'm the quintessential "figure it out as you go" type person.

I did Noa's quilt first and kept breaking needles! I was making rookie mistakes and annoying myself to no end! At one point, my finger hit the needle, the needle went through the side of my finger and broke off (see picture below). I had to cut the thread to get it out of my finger and of course I was bleeding everywhere! Didn't get any on the quilt though, just all over the thread.

Ah! My beautiful binding!! So yummy. This fabric isn't from the same line, but I couldn't keep my hands off of it when I was in the fabric store. It coordinates perfectly and Noa loved it too. Here's a tutorial on what to do with binding. I reference it every time I go down that long and "binding" road. Ha. I'm such a dork. But, I do reference it a lot.

Cuteness break. Lydie is saying, "Hey Mom, why are you ignoring me? Are you still obsessing over that quilt?"

O.k. Back to work. Here I am squaring up the sides (cutting off the excess batting & material) although I use the term "squaring" loosely, since my quilts are always a bit wonky. Unintentionally. "Perfectly Imperfect," as a friend would say. This is actually one of my favorite parts, since the ever-so-scary machine quilting is done.

"N" for Noa!

"r" for Ruthie! (This one is a little harder to find - even for me, and I know right where it is!)

The backs: Ruthie's is blue, Noa's is pink. I was going to give Noa blue, but she insisted on the pink color. She has been all about pink lately! (Sorry the picture is turned)

The fronts: The colors are a lot brighter and more fun than this picture makes them seem. The coral color binding was perfect for the edges! Just don't look at the corners. I'm not that great at mitering, they are just whip-stitched to death. If anyone has a great youtube tutorial on mitering, send it my way! My corners have "amateur" written all over them.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately) after seeing them in action, I know I have to make one for Lydie too. Russ just rolled his eyes... But, now that I'm back in the game with no bebe in my tummy, my mind is reeling with quilt craziness... Expect more soon! (O.k., maybe not soon, but in the not-so-distant future.)

Thankful Thursdays

2011-06-22T20:42:00.008-04:00

This week I am thankful for:

All of the Fathers in my life. I have had the privilege and blessing to have a wonderful Dad, a great father-in-law, an amazing daddy to my girls, and most of all a gracious and loving Heavenly Father who is the foundation of it all. What a great thing to celebrate this week!

Progress on the quilts! You better believe there will be a post about it soon! I only have yet to put the binding on and then the big reveal - but here is a teaser. :)

Tough conversations. Life-giving conversations. Perspective.

Crazy Bible study. It has gotten crazier! But I still like it. :)

Ummm, can't believe I didn't write a whole post about this already... but, I lost and then later found my incredible engagement ring! Enough time elapsed between the two to warrant some major panic on my part. I kept it to myself at first and then a few days later I told Russ. After combing over the entire house many times, I prayed one last time and had the idea to look in the bathroom garbage can. Lydie was sleeping in there, but I still went through the trash piece by piece and found my ring in the bottom of it! There are probably about 15 posts wrapped up in this one event, but suffice to say it was a good moment. A really good moment.

The fact that even when teething, Lydie is the easiest baby in the world. She melts my heart about ever 10 seconds. Wow Lord, You are good to us! To me!

The challenge of a life full of faith and the continual conversation going on in my head about what it looks like (yes, daily...hourly) to be filled with the Spirit. I love this stuff!

Homemade gifts that come in the mail! Thanks Jenn! What kind of a friend (with a busy toddler of her own) takes time to make three pairs of pants and three skirts with matching hairclips? A good one!! They are all fabuloso! (And by that, I mean all the pants, all the skirts, all the hairclips, and mostly my friend, Jenn.)

The heat! (o.k. just kidding. I can't imagine when I would ever be thankful for the heat.) But let's turn that frown up-side-down and thank Him for the rain we had about 5 days ago. My husband always says it is like money falling from the sky. Send more, Lord! We don't want to pay to water our lawn!! (Side note: I've started conserving water while taking showers. It is actually quite refreshing and not so hot.)

DORITOS!! I am eating them right now... typing with my nasty, cheesy fingers... smiling a big orange smile. This is a good moment. A really good moment.

Ephesians 5:19-20 - "Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

I heart Ruthie

2011-06-18T21:11:00.000-04:00

How many kids can you fit into a kiddie pool?

2011-06-13T13:37:00.004-04:00

A lot!!! 8 to be exact. Well, I guess Isaac and Lydie never went in, but I think they would fit!

Ruthie took the longest to warm up to the whole scene. Not a big fan of the pool at this point...

Noa, on the other hand, loves anything water related. Funny that when the sprinkler is on though, she runs around it, not actually through it. I guess it is still too scary or something. :)

We'll have to do it again soon, friends! Summertime is here! Just don't come over today - we have some cleaning to do!

Ewwww....

Thankful Thursdays

2011-06-09T20:46:00.003-04:00

Today I am thankful for these cute skirts that were WAY on sale at Old Navy. I love watching the girls (minus Geegs) twirl and dance around in them! A pretty shallow Thursday, but then again, maybe not. Simple things make me happy. :)

Summer is Here

2011-05-27T20:06:00.004-04:00

In no particular order...

Dora "candies" and wings!

After Ruthie saw Noa's candies, she HAD to wear Noa's Dora jammies. Side note: we can't stand Dora. I don't know why I broke down and bought these pj's or the underwear for that matter. The older they get, it is really hard to find pj's without characters on them though. So, I guess we're going with the flow. I want to sell Jesus pj's. I wonder if they would be a hit? Jesus is waaayyyy better than Dora.

Cranky

I think this is the best one yet!

I let Lydie have some tummy-time at Daddy's office and she fell asleep, sucking her thumb right there in the middle of the floor...

...and then woke up all smiles!

Someone was ready for the beach!

Ruthie and "Hoo-ee" her horse. She loves his tail.

Their new favorite spot.

Nana's house

A day in the life

Not only do we have a duck family that visits all the time, we now have DEER! This is the first and only time we've ever seen them, although I'm sure they've been there all along. :) I need to quit praying these animals in or else we'll have a zoo in the backyard.

*love*

Dress up, complete with "Bubba Teeth." Ooooo SCARY!

Thankful Thursdays

2011-05-26T19:16:00.002-04:00

This will be quick as I'm just getting back into the groove after a great get-away this week. I'm also trying to get this done before the older girls get out of the bath (yeah right). :) My attitude has been in the dumpster today after a failed trip to the Children's Museum. We got there and left in about 15 minutes after multiple melt-downs from both girls and Noa peeing all over the place. I was so irritated that my melt-down lasted all day and was much worse than theirs! So. Yeah. I need this Thankful Thursday more than anyone!! This week I am thankful for:

Refreshing time away with Russ and the Watkins. What a relaxing and simply perfect trip we had! I loved every single thing about it. Really. I am also sooooo very thankful for everyone that helped with the kids for a few days.

Watching Noa run around in the sprinkler, laughing the entire time.

After a double ear infection, Ruthie's ears seem to be better and she hasn't had a fever today! Yay for God's healing hand and good meds!!

Clothes that fit. (Not all of them fit, but some do and I am thankful for them!)

Prime Minister Netanyahu's clear and direct way of reminding the US of the grave situation in Israel and the Lord's voice reminding me to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Lydie knows how to take a bottle!!!!! Yes, yes, YES!!! You can't imagine the freedom this brings to my life!

Wow. I just heard on the news that SC had the cheapest gas in the nation. That's something to be thankful for!

Anyway, the girls are now out of the bath and it is time to help Russ get their jammies on... I have some pics to download so I'll have to post them in the next few days. Until next time!

Thankful Thursdays

2011-05-19T14:11:00.006-04:00

Apparently there wasn’t anything good to post about last Thursday because a week came and went and I just now realized it! Such is life. And although there’s much to ponder concerning this week, I wanted to highlight someone that we’re thankful for today, the one and only Ms. Louise! Today I decided to take the girls over to see her. Let me tell you about our trip.

Russ left at about 9:00 this morning and that’s when I started getting things ready for our trip to see Ms. Louise. My goal was to leave at about 10:00. She lives in North Charleston and it takes about 35 minutes to get to her house. Now, anyone who has kids knows that even FIVE minutes in the car is a stretch sometimes, especially with a newborn who hates the car. But, I felt up for it today. I’m just going to bullet point the things that we had to do in order to prepare for this little trip. If you currently are in this season with young kids, and want to skip past this part, I don’t blame you! Why would anyone want to re-live the annoying packing and loading step? Skip right ahead! But, for those of you who have never done this or haven’t done it in a while, read on. In order to load these three cute girls up, I had to:

- Get all of them dressed, change diapers, put shoes on (2 or 3 times after they would take them off and lose them)

- Get Noa to go to the bathroom before getting in the car, and then wipe down her little potty, grab toilet paper, and load that up too

- Get a diaper bag ready with dipes, wipes, treats, extra clothes for Noa if she has an accident, burp clothes and a camera for pics

- Get myself ready and go to the bathroom since I won’t have an opportunity to do so with 3 kids hanging on me while we’re there

- Wake the baby up (only to pay for that later) and feed her so she won’t scream on the way and won’t want to eat when we get there

- Load everybody up, crawling all over the backseat to get the 2 older girls strapped in

- Remember everyone’s little security blanket/toy things

- Get my purse and go!!

Whew! Step 1: DONE!

Lydia was already screaming her head off before we even left the driveway. She definitely doesn’t like the car and let us know the entire way out to Ms. Louise’s house. Yes, we enjoyed her blood curdling cry the ENTIRE 35 minutes we were in the car. The other girls were pretty good on the way there, but took their shoes off and threw them on the floor. Lydia finally fell asleep about a minute before we got there and screamed once I woke her up again. When we got there I had to:

- Crawl in the back seat and put the baby carrier on

- Unhook the other girls and keep them from escaping while trying to get their shoes on and get the baby in the carrier (which is like having the baby strapped to you, for those who are unfamiliar with this)

- Grab the diaper bag and my purse

- Comfort the girls when they freaked out after they heard and saw a low flying plane (Ms. Louise lives right by the airport.)

- Convince the girls to get back out of the car (baby strapped to me) after they climbed back in and hid because of the plane. This actually took a while.

- Get them into the nursing home as quickly as possible since they were running all over the parking lot

- Stop to look at and talk to a cat that was roaming around (FREAKY! I HATE CATS!)

Finally, we made it in the building! Whew! Step 2: DONE!

Noa was holding herself and still startled from the plane, so she was scared of everyone that was in there and couldn’t articulate what she needed, although I knew she had to go potty. Of course her timing was perfect. So, Lydia is strapped to me, I am also holding Ruthie, and we are trying to get into one of the bathrooms before Noa had an accident. She’s not that great at holding it yet, so I was pretty anxious as both of the bathrooms were occupied with elderly people. I was relieved when it didn’t take that long for us to get in one. Then the whole potty routine took place while I was trying not to bang Lydia into everything (she was on the front of me) as I tried to keep Ruthie out of the drawers, toilet, shower, etc. etc. etc. Noa was also needing help sitting on the potty and getting toilet paper, etc.

At this point, I was already exhausted and we hadn’t even made it back to see Ms. Louise. So, we finally finished with potty time and headed back to her room. Noa and Ruthie, still shaken by the airplane incident, were also frightened by every elderly person they saw along the way, so I kept having to stop, comfort them, wait, stop, wait, wait, wait, comfort, wait, stop… It took about 5 minutes to get down the hallway.

FINALLY we made it to Ms. Louise’s room! And you know what? The smile on her face was incredible. It was so nice to see her and she was so surprised to see us.

You see, for obvious reasons, we haven’t been there in a while. It really is difficult to take all 3 girls anywhere (especially with Lydia needing to eat and nap so often)! If you know me, you know that I’m not incredibly gifted in the area of mercy. Nope. Not my thing. I wish I was better at it, but in every “Spiritual Gifts Test” I ever take, mercy is second to last, hospitality being the last. Yep. Every single time. Right about now you’re thinking, “What kind of a terrible person is Jackie?” I know. Especially living in the south, right? That is precisely why I decided I needed to force myself to think of someone else. I want my girls to learn how to step outside of their comfort zone for the benefit of others and I realized I needed to start doing that more myself.

We stayed for about 45 minutes in her tiny little room. All of her belongings were low to the ground and the girls kept pulling out her lipstick, clothes, hairbrushes, notebooks. It was maddening to try to control every little thing they were doing. Lydia was fussy and was constantly spitting up everywhere. Ms. Louise had an Easter basket saved up for them, but she had eaten the chocolate out of it long ago and only had the grass left in it, which they spread all over the room. (Side note: Obviously Ms. Louise can’t bend down to get all of it, so who was picking it up before we left with a 15 pound little cutie strapped to her? Um yeah, that would be me. Grass was everywhere!!!) Yeah, it was definitely a busy 45 minutes. But Ms. Louise loved it! The girls danced for her, sang for her, got a little ride on her walker, and we all prayed for her before we left. Other people kept popping in their heads to see what all the commotion was about too. They all loved seeing the girls even though they were actually quite a handful and a little fussy.

The ride back was also terrible with Lydia screaming the whole way. She finally fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got home, precisely when Noa and Ruthie decided to have a fit about who could hold the sippy cup, waking her up again. I was so glad to be home as the whole thing was exhausting and took up our entire morning.

I was reminded of John 13:35 which basically says that others will know we are Jesus’ disciples because we love one another. Let me tell you that I was not up for it when Lydia was screaming on the way there. I had to pray that God would pour out His love for Ms. Louise into my heart (Romans 5:5) because I totally wasn’t feeling it. But He did! And my girls and I learned a few valuable lessons today. 1. Loving others is doable. 2. People need our love. 3. It is always rewarding for all involved.

Is there someone who needs the love of the Father expressed through you today? Maybe you have the luxury of just hopping in your car to go bless someone without lugging kids around. Maybe you have been blessed financially and could stand to give some away. The possibilities are endless! Step outside of yourself and go love someone! And then ask God for help! I think this is going to be a regular thing for us now. J

Quick Little Post

2011-05-18T08:47:00.004-04:00

No time folks! But boy am I good to you! Russ and I are going out of town this Sunday (YIPEE!!!) and the week is totally PACKED up until that time. We, however, are not packed. It takes a lot of time and energy for me to get everything ready for everyone. This is the second most draining job in the world for me and I keep putting it off. Blaaaaah! (The first most draining job would be sorting through the girls' clothes, putting the outgrown ones in the attic and bringing down new ones. I can't tell you how much I hate that job, which is why my girls constantly look like their clothes are either sucked to their bodies or 2 sizes too big.) Anyway, that's the reason I am blogging right now rather than packing. Yuck. Don't even want to think about it. I also don't want to think about the fact that I have to find a bathing suit that works for me right now. Ugh. Another reason to put off the packing... So this post is dedicated to my old friend procrastination. Here's to you, my faithful buddy!

Found some pics of Noa's birthday party again. Here's the birthday girl in her new outfit before we ruined it with chocolate frosting. Oh well. We still wear it. ;)

Cousin Micah! He actually just turned 1 this week - can't believe it - and we love that the girls have a big, tough, boy cousin to protect them, since we don't seem to produce any boys ourselves.

I want to eat with abandon, just like this.

Sweet Geegs at the beach. This is maybe the only successful beach trip (out of like 2) that we've ever had. Wish I had more pics - it was such a fun day. Baby slept the whole time on my lap. *love*

And here's a bonus picture of the Lyds with her normal spit-up running down her face. What baby picture is complete without a quilt for them to lay on?! I've gotta get working on some more. I have so many ideas in my head for the girls' room...just need to START on something. But, then again, my constant companion is whispering in my ear, "why start now?" :)

Our future's so bright...

2011-05-11T21:02:00.000-04:00

We need shades!!

But not Babers...she needs "candies" (what Noa calls them) on her head!!

This is where you usually find Noa - right next to her Lydie.

Sleepy little angles

I just found these pics on Russ' computer. Beautiful!!

Thankful Thursdays

2011-05-04T14:20:00.016-04:00

1 Thessalonians 5:18 - "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

Fathter, this week I am thankful for...

Reconnecting with an old friend.

Retrieving an old purse for Noa to play with when she and Ruthie were fighting over a different one. Inside I found 2 reimbursement checks from November, totaling $425, which would've become invalid next week. So the Lord not only "surprised" us with money, but saved me from having to jump through hoops to get new ones issued.

A friend's miracle baby girl. After a long and difficult labor, she miscarried her first sweet girl, Halle Jane. They found out she was pregnant again, only she had to spend a majority of her pregnancy on bed rest, completely horizontal. You should take a moment to read this post about a special gift given to this baby girl. God writes the best stories. (be sure to click on Susan's account too - that may help explain it a little better). Anyway, Sienna Faith is here!

Shaping the temple with Ricque, Ivana, and others. My early morning walks have become an incredible prayer time with the Lord. I must admit that I totally have shin splints though!

A break from my insulin pump! I definitely feel way less clunky.

Noa's success in potty training. I think something has finally "clicked." Hallelujah!! Come on somebody!!

Living in a beautiful place full of beautiful parks.

Sharing good dates, good walks, good food, good talks, and incredibly special moments with my husband, the one who truly knows me and still loves me.

The fact that my Lydia has become a pro at sleeping through the night.

The plethora of help we have with the girls - even with my family being far away! Russ' parents are always so helpful in taking the girls on Mondays (and other times) and for our date night, we were even able to leave little Lydie with friends at a moment's notice. Even yesterday I was blessed by 3 different women clamoring to take care of the baby when we have a quick get-away at the end of the month.

And on the flip-side, I am thankful for a hard-working husband who gives me the opportunity to stay home with my loves and the many ways the responsibility of it stretches me, changes me, and blesses me.

Leading worship with Russ at church on Wednesday night!

Healing in our house, yet again! Ruthie is not totally out of the woods yet, but her congestion hasn't turned into something worse and she hasn't had a fever in a while. No one else has gotten sick.

1 Chronicles 4:10 - "Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, 'Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.' And God granted his request." Friends, we are blessed indeed!

Waterfront Park

2011-05-01T20:30:00.008-04:00

Happy Birthday Mom! Here's a sweet little post for you. Wish you were here!!

The weather was perfect tonight, so we made a little picnic and went downtown to Waterfront park. It was soooo beautiful! And what do little kids love more than anything? WATER!!

They were a little sheepish at first, but quickly warmed up to it.

They made some little friends who showed them how to get totally drenched.

Precious Lydie was sooooo patient. :) It was pretty windy and I don't think she liked it very much.

Then they found this grate thing that made noise when they jumped on it, so that kept them busy for a long time. They loved it - especially Ruthie. Everyone that walked by thought they were so sweet, especially a pack of 3 older ladies who were just captivated. I wonder if there's some people out there who just never see kids. And then there's me, who gets to spend every minute with these cuties. Priceless.

Thankful Thursdays

2011-04-28T13:30:00.000-04:00

So here we are again. Another week has flown by! There hasn't been much time to sit down and be incredibly thoughtful about life (sorry - no pics this week, I am tired!!), but still there remains so much to be thankful for and so much that the Father does for, in, and through us. This week I am thankful for...

Coming up for air on the other side of a very exhausting week

The Holy Week fireworks (At first, this was a complaint as I heard someone setting them off at 10 p.m. on Saturday night. If you have kids you know that July 4th and New Years Eve are the most annoying of all holidays, threatening to wake your babies up with every blast. As I laid there listening to them though, I figured Jesus was much more worthy of celebration than either our country or a new year, so I was fine with it after that. I'm sure they were not necessarily fireworks for Jesus, but He IS risen, so why not make them about Him? And no one woke up!)

Open-handed friends who teach this tight-fisted one how to relax and be generous

Still thankful for no throw up

Watching my sweet 3 year old Noa Jane enjoy her Minnie Mouse birthday party with childlike wonder

Russ' help cleaning up the house (this was a lot of work!) after the aforementioned exhausting week

Heart friends, near friends, distant friends, family friends, new friends, old friends - wonderful people who round out our lives and journey with us as we follow Christ

Days where I actually get a nap

Living so near to so many neat farms during this time of year-strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, fresh veggies, goat cheese, fresh chicken eggs... Makes me feel like I'm home.

The 3 ducks (as Noa would say, "a Mommy one, a Daddy one, and a baby one" -- although there are really just 2 mallards and a female one) that visited us in our backyard one day. I prayed for them to come back (as the girls thought it was the coolest thing ever and it kept them busy for about 30 minutes) and they came back this morning, just waddling through! I have no idea what they're doing, or why they would come to us, but it was a neat little gift this morning!

The grace bestowed upon us in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior, and the privilege of celebrating that this week

I hope this next week is a meaningful one for you, my friends! May we honor Christ in all we do and notice Him at work in great and small things. Side note: Will you please pray for my babies as they are sick with some kind of cough thing. Ruthie has a fever. I would love to add their healing to my list next week. :)

Noa's Birthday Party

2011-04-27T21:00:00.004-04:00

My sweet friend Dawn was nice enough to snap a few pictures at Noa's party on Saturday. Thanks!! We had a splendid time celebrating our girl and were so blessed by all of the family and friends who came out to celebrate her with us. It was definitely a blessing to her.

A Daddy's work is never done. :)

Oh my. This is so, so normal for Babers.

Little Lydie was a champ. She was perfectly content with her Nana the entire party and even waited 4+ hours to eat, just to celebrate her big sis.

These cupcakes were the source of way, way too much thought on my part. They consumed my mind all week until I actually got to put them together. Noa loved them though. At first she said, "Mom, where's Minnie's face?" but then I explained we were just decorating with her ears and she seemed o.k. with that. :) Worst part? Squishing Starburst into the little bows. Killed my thumbs.

I think Noa thought the cupcakes were magical. So did I! After all, isn't chocolate magical?

Notice that Babers has a different bag of chips in her hand in every picture. Like mother, like daughter...

Oh how we love you, our sweet Noa who doesn't know how to smile on demand! You make our hearts overflow with joy. Happy 3rd Birthday to our silly Chicks!

Thankful Thursdays

2011-04-20T14:37:00.005-04:00

I was so inspired a few weeks ago by my friend's Remember Me Mondays post on her blog. There is so much that I take for granted! I think that even with a different title, you would all know I am totally copying her idea. But if there were ever an idea to copy, wouldn't it be this one? Whatever I can do to foster a grateful heart, I want to do it! No. Let me rephrase that...I need to do it! - especially during this busy, distracted, full season.

For me, Thursdays are the most boring, long, uninspiring days. I usually have some type of a break from the girls most days, but on Thursdays I rarely do. What a perfect day to start documenting what He has done and is doing in my life. I need these constant reminders of His grace or else I become a really selfish, stressed out mommy, an inattentive wife, and a terrible example of Christ.

I love you, Father! You are good to your children! Today I am thankful for...

Sitting on the back porch in the early morning, watching my girls play and listening to the birds singing praise.

My sweet Russ planning the meals this week.

The opportunity to meet precious Lucy, a little girl from Thailand that we have prayed for now for over 2 years. What a picture of how we are adopted into God's family!

A wonderful discussion in our Tuesday Morning Bible Study despite my lack of preparation. :)

Russ constantly displaying a Daddy's strong love for his girls.

No one in our house has thrown up this week! The healing hand of our God is upon our household.

Friends down the street.

Not putting one ounce of effort towards the bounty of strawberries we found in last years' garden! And the sweet whisper of the Holy Spirit, reminding me in that moment, that it is not by my works that I am saved, but by his abundant grace.

Listening to my sweet Noa sing praise and worship in her 2 year old way.

Lydie's darling little newborn cry and the way she is soothed so easily when we pick her up.

It is so fun to recount His faithfulness to us in great and small ways! May you remember the Father in all you experience this week!

Too cute not to watch

2011-04-19T21:29:00.002-04:00

Church Pics

2011-04-12T13:26:00.003-04:00

Glad to be back in the game after a rough stomach-bug-kind-of-a-week last week. Everyone is doing better and back to busy!

This picture melts my heart... Best buds having dinner on the deck.

Everybody, get in the boat!!!

We've had some requests for pics of all three of them. This is so hard!!

Pretty Lydie

I'm sure Russ gets annoyed with me when right before we leave on Sunday (getting us all ready is quite an undertaking), I ask if we can take pictures of the girls because they look so sweet. We need to just build picture time into Sunday mornings, although they usually don't turn out very well, so why do we keep doing it?! My fault.

Hey everyone, don't look so excited for church.

That's better Noa! Wake up Ruthie!

Another attempt at getting all three. Dumb.

All Smiles

2011-04-02T21:22:00.003-04:00

Here's Russ with all his beautiful girls! We took this picture like 7 times. It is just so hard to get everyone on the same page!!

We are totally convinced that Chicks doesn't know what a smile is. Everyone thinks she is serious, but she is a really goofy kid! She is smile-challenged in pics.

Here's attempt #2. This is usually what her smile looks like. Just teeth. She was so proud of her outfit since she picked it out, that she didn't mind me trying 10 times (to no avail) to get a smile. How about her new little haircut though?! Cute, cute!!

Babers has a new love. Her jean jacket! She calls this (and her new sister) her gee gee and she wants to wear it all the time, as you will see in the last picture.

Gee gee has been working on her smiles too! This is right before she started to cry (love that lip!), but the next picture is my attempt at getting her smiling. Not great, but I think you can see a little smile at least.

Such a sweet little girl! Since babies don't smile for about 6 or 7 weeks, we never knew she had a dimple. We just noticed it this week! I was so excited as I never even thought that dimples might be in the mix (neither Russ nor I have them and I can't think of many dimples on either side). So far I can only see one (which is more rare), but maybe there's two hiding in there somewhere. I could watch her smile all day. She is the sweetest.

But here's my favorite picture of all time! How about these girlies?!?! Noa loves her boots and Ruthie loves that jacket! Notice "Ansley" (Noa's Minnie) stuffed down the neck of her jammies too. She carries her babies in the neck of her shirts all the time. Drives me crazy because they're all stretched out. But these girls make me laugh! This looks like an album cover or something! In fact, Noa makes up her own music all the time. She likes to sing on the deck and yesterday I heard her saying, "Hallelujah (her L sound is actually a W, so it was Haweewuwah), hallelujah, shake it up, shake it up, shake it up and oooobbbbeeeeeeyyyy Mommy. Obeeeeyyy Daddy. Shake it up, shake it up!" So funny.

I am Famous!

2011-03-23T15:53:00.008-04:00

I won an award! I won an award! Look at this!

I just need to tell you 7 things about myself and then choose my favorite blogs. Here''s some awesome reading for you.

1. I am not a dog lover. I actually could care less if I ever see a dog again. That does not mean I am a mean person. Don't even ask me about cats.

2. I love to shove handfuls of chips in my mouth while no one is looking. I think they taste better that way and I am sad that this is socially unacceptable. Don't dwell on that visual too long.

3. I prayed for braces my whole life and wanted my teeth to be fixed before my wedding day. God provided them for free and they were off about 10 months before I married Russ. I also have a crown. I watched Uncle Walt do my root canal in a mirror. I loved it.

4. I have no idea why my blog would be of interest to Mandy and I am shocked that I won this "award." I think I need more "awards" too. Not necessarily for my blog, just because I am awesome. I do however, hope those "awards" don't require me to do anything.

5. Noa was in my belly when we went to Ireland. Ever since St. Patrick's Day this year, she has been switching out "my" for "me." For instance, she'll say, "where is me sippy?" "I can't find me stroller." Weird.

6. Charleston is about a thousand times too hot for me and I complain about it from February to November.

7. I am madly in love with my Pastor. I secretly want to pawn my kids off on someone and run away with him to somewhere tropical for a week! Hint, hint: To do this, me and my Pastor would need a babysitter and some money. Think about it.

And because you've endured and I deliver, I will give you a bonus 8th intriguing fact about myself!

8. I can say all of the states in alphabetical order in 16 seconds. I hope we never acquire more states as this would ruin my time.

Here are the "winners!"

The Soler Family

The Nickel Family

The Talbott Family

Update! We have another "winner!"

The Wallace Family

Mom Tip of the Year

2011-03-21T15:36:00.002-04:00

Are you tired of passing out while you blow on your kids' food to cool it down? Here's what we do now. (That is oatmeal) If you're in the car just stick it up next to the A/C! Probably not the best tip of the year, but its gotta be in the top ten!

Here's what Noa picked out to wear today. She is totally into dressing up lately.

Sweet little Gee gee.

Crazy Babers. I have no idea what she's doing here but usn't she beautiful?!

Finally got the Bella Baby Pictures in! :)

2011-03-20T16:59:00.005-04:00

As I look through these sweet pictures again, I can't help but realize that these girls are a precious gift from our good Father. Having 3 children back-to-back like we have, wouldn't necessarily have been my plan. There are definitely days when it is all I can do to just come up for breath. They certainly require a lot! But what a blessing. What a gift. A divine plan of sanctification was set in motion with the conception of each girl. I couldn't think of a better way, full of such challenges as well as so many sweet rewards, to draw near to our great Creator, Father, Savior, Friend, Counsellor, and Helper. I could go on and on.

Upon the announcement of our third very quick pregnancy, we received so many comments like, "don't you know how that happens?" etc., etc., etc. (Russ always liked to reply, "Yes we do and we're not stopping it!" - Total man comment.) I can't help but think that our society has it all wrong. We could get hung up here on the amount of kids one should have/could have, but I think the greater issue is simply how we view these little lives. Often times we see them as part of our plan, our American dream, our manageable life. And to some extent they are. But oh so much more! How many lives could be touched through sharp and ready arrows in my hand? How many sins could be exposed and uprooted from my life as I need the Lord's help to simply keep them alive each day?! Friends, we have been given much more than material for photo shoots. But the very breath of God was breathed into our beings to give Him glory and praise all of our days! I am so thankful the Lord saw fit to give us (thus far) 3 girls that are reminders of such a calling. May we be faithful to it all of our days.

Noa's First Haircut

2011-03-08T17:40:00.003-05:00

Thanks to "The New One Mrs. Jenn" (what Noa calls her since we already have a Jenn that we know and love) for the wonderful haircut! Noa was a champ, although a little wiggly, and hasn't really thought a thing of it since we hacked off nearly 6 inches!

The Year of the Sink Bath

2011-03-05T13:12:00.004-05:00

First things first though... why am I so weird? One day when I looked at the girls doll stroller, I just had to put Lydie in it. Had to. In my mind, I envisioned the girls having a real baby to take around the house. Why would I ever let that happen?! Still had to see if she fit. Didn't!! Too big! She was kind of terrified! These are things you start to try only after you've had a few.

Here's Noa for the 900th time wanting a picture with Lydia. Lydie's still terrified.

Sink bath! Why did I buy all those stupid bath things when Noa was an infant? Sink bath's are perfect! No mess, no stress! Spa treatment time for Lydia - calmed her right down.

And just to document that I was actually around when she was tiny, here's a picture of the two of us. I have to force myself to take them now-a-days. But, when I look at this picture I see my mom! Totally freaky. (side note: Freaked out that I look so much like her - not because she's ugly. In fact, she's very beautiful.)

Here's what Russ would look like preggo. Just kidding. Lydie's hangin' on for dear life! No fat to grab!

Here's Ruthie saying, "OMG. My dad is so crazy. He thinks I'm going to break his coffee thing."

Look Alikes

2011-02-24T10:29:00.006-05:00

So do you think Lydia has her own look or does she look like...

Noa?

...or Ruthie?

Can I Hold Her?

2011-02-22T19:31:00.004-05:00

That is definitely the question we hear the most from Noa. A typical firstborn, she has to be the caretaker of everyone and now Lydie is added to the list. She really does a good job holding her too!

Here's an attempt to get the three girls together, since I realized they were sort of matching that day (by accident). This was the best picture we got, so you can imagine how the other ones look - mostly Babers' fault. But aren't they sweet?

I love to snuggle with my girlfriend too. Bliss.

Seriously... who wouldn't want one of these? Or another one of these if you already have some? They are the most precious gifts the Father could have thought to give us and I am forever in love.

Can't Think of a Title

2011-02-22T13:50:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to feed Lydia while typing this and just as I started to type (literally the same moment) I heard Noa start talking to herself (supposed to be napping), threatening my hour of free time. Ugh! Can you see why I can't think of a title? I feel totally scattered most days!! I swear it is not my fault!

I realized I haven't really blogged about how adding another one to the mix has been going. Actually, there are definitely some crazy moments, but all-in-all it has been pretty smooth. Lydia is still in the stage where she sleeps almost the entire day. She usually wakes up once in the morning and again around 7p.m., which is the worst part of the whole deal. By the time we get the other 2 to bed, we're just ready for a break, and that is exactly when Lydia ramps it up. So she's usually fussy from about 7 to 11, sometimes 12, but then she is really good at sleeping for sometimes up to 5 hours at night, then returns to sleeping a lot after eating. It hasn't been bad at night. But the evenings... hmmm.. well, that's sometimes hard to gear up for. Russ has been a great help - usually staying up with her to let me go to bed earlier. But, this too shall pass. This season is usually pretty short. And she is absolutely precious.

I have been feeling a bit better this week, but the whole recovery has been a slow-go, as I thought it would be. Annoying. Everything was fine at my 2 week check-up, and I go for my 6 week check up in a few weeks. So, all is well. Just hard to do everything I need to do and feel run-down at the same time.

O.k. Noa definitely needs a talking to. I would cherish a nap right now, but evidently she doesn't feel the same way... I'll leave it at that. I'll upload some pictures later. I have no idea why this thing started to use italics 1/2 way through. In my younger years it would've really bothered me, but I'm to scattered to care anymore. At least I'm posting something! :)

What We've Been up to Lately

2011-02-09T14:34:00.007-05:00

NOT MUCH!!!! And actually a whole lot all at the same time.

We've been going a little stir crazy at the house lately...

I'm actually surprised the floor isn't covered in toy and all kinds of other junk. How did we manage that?

Here's the face Noa gives us when we ask her to smile. Weirdo!

She does have a beautiful smile, but unfortunately we rarely catch it on camera.

"Hi. My name is Ruthie. I'm the messiest kid in the world."

Here's a little impromptu photo shoot Russ took of Lydia. Kind of a stupid outfit, but cute none-the-less.

And my favorite shot of all - Sweet sisters!!

Lots of Pics!!

2011-02-02T17:40:00.008-05:00

Here's the girls 2 nights before their new sister came. They love their guitar jammies!

And here they are meeting Lydia for the first time.

More visitors...

And just because they're so darn cute, here's a few pictures of Chicks & Babers. Ruthie loves to wear any hats, purses, bracelets, etc...

I told Noa to smile and show her teeth and this is all I got. She still has remnants of candy all over her face too. Lovely!

Bella Baby Photos

2011-02-01T11:36:00.003-05:00

As always, they send a photographer in to take a bunch of baby pics. How could you not get sucked into buying every one of them? Here's the info for Lydia's gallery. It will only be up until 2/12/11, so take a peak! :)

bellababyphotography.com

password: lydiakate128

Day 3

2011-01-30T20:27:00.002-05:00

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday I felt so much better than Friday and today I have felt pretty good too. We decided to stay another night to take advantage of the nighttime nursery so we could sleep. We'll go home tomorrow morning - and we are so ready to see Noa and Ruthie! Can't wait to be back together again!

Here's a picture of the beautiful hospital gown that Linda made for me!

And here's a sweet little video of Lydia. Mostly for my mom. :) She is such a sweetie!

Lydia Kate Miller

2011-01-29T09:42:00.004-05:00

Just a few pictures of our sweet girl. Everything went very well with the surgery yesterday and I felt at peace the whole time. I was afraid that I would be thinking about all the gory details as I was laying there, but that really wasn't the case, and the whole thing was rather fascinating to me. The comfort of the Lord is truly an amazing thing.

So, sometime around 8:20 a.m. (we're not totally sure) on January 28th, Lydia Kate Miller was born weighing 10 lbs., 15 ounces and 22 inches long. Big girl!! As soon as we both saw her, we thought she looked just like Noa's baby pictures, and she keeps reminding us of her the more we're around her. Such a sweet, precious gift from God.

So yes, we changed the name. Every time we tried to call her Kate, it just didn't seem right. Lydia has been in the running for some time, and this morning when we talked about it, it just seemed like the right thing. (Sorry to my wonderful mom, whose middle name was bumped at the last minute, but since we seem to make girls, it could possibly be used for the next baby). So, that's the deal. Lydia Kate. Enjoy the pictures of our new sweetie!!

I think Noa was a bit star-struck, I think. :) It was so sweet. She loved holding her!

The New Latest

2011-01-25T07:33:00.006-05:00

Not much has changed since the old latest. Just thought I would update incase anyone is dying to know if she's here or something. Nope. In fact, not much is going on. I feel pretty much the same as I usually do (not what you want when you're hoping to go into labor), but of course, there aren't really any great indicators as to when someone will go into labor anyway. 38.5 weeks is still a tad early, so I'm not surprised.

Had a doctor's appointment yesterday (today I don't have one - yippee!! - free day!!) and unfortunately the baby fell asleep while they were trying to monitor their heart - so I had to be on the fetal monitor for about an hour and a half. That's a long time for a big pregnant woman to be sitting in the same position! Not to mention, they really had the heat cranked in that room and I was sweating when Dr. Frampton came in! I mean, really sweating! But, the baby finally did her stuff and I talked to him for about 5 minutes and then we were done.

It kind of makes me laugh that if we end up having the baby on Friday via c-section, I really have no idea what to expect. I remember working at the Orthodontist and letting each patient know what was coming - every single little tiny step - and that was just getting braces on! They're about to slice and dice and I have no idea when I'm even supposed to show up at the hospital! So, yesterday, I asked Dr. Frampton if there was any paperwork that their office handed out explaining the process or giving me any information I need to know. "Not really," he said. He sat down and talked to me for a few minutes about it, but I need the paper! I need to look on a sheet of paper and check off boxes, and make sure I know what's coming! Anyway, just the pre-baby jitters, I guess. And, I guess if I went into labor on my own, I wouldn't know exactly what was coming anyway... :) But still!

In other news, Ruthie has managed to finally say (with consistency) her first word. She's mumbled around with "Mamamamama" before, but never with a ton of recognition, so I won't let that count. Here is her ridiculous first word:

MINNIE!!!!!

The girls love Minnie, but I'm not actually sure where they saw her in the first place. Anyway, Babers latched right on, so now I suppose we'll have to cart them all down to Disney World some day soon. But she has also started saying Mama, cracker, Noa (wa wa), nose, Nana, doggie... I think that's it. I think I might be the only one who can decipher some of them though... but, she's really trying! It is so cute! I'll have to get a video of it soon and post it.

Well... with that, I'm signing off. I don't have the girls this morning so I'm going to pack all of our hospital bags, which I'm excited about. I hate packing, but this will make me feel one step closer... Ah, what a week it will be!

The Latest

2011-01-20T15:35:00.002-05:00

Well, baby girl is getting huge, although I'm pretty proud that at the last 3 appointments, my weight has stayed the same... so hopefully we're leveling off a little bit.

As usual, we've had several appointments in the last few weeks and thankfully Russ has been able to go with me to talk about the delivery options. As I said before, he's just way better at that than I am. He's able to let them know our desires and also listen to their concerns, and I just getting nervous and crying... so, I was glad he was there.

In talking quite extensively to 2 of our 3 doctors, we decided to go until 39 weeks (which is when both of the other girls were born - not that that makes any difference other than the fact that they were very big even a week early), which is next Friday, the 28th. If I go into labor before then, I'm pretty sure we're going to try to just have a normal delivery. If we hit next Friday, we will delivery by c-section at 8 a.m. At first I was kind of bummed about the whole thing, but really we've been placing this in the Lord's hands, and feel that this is the right decision. I don't feel bullied by my doctors at all and I actually feel like this was our decision. There's a whole lot more to the story, but it would be a really boring post, I think. So, for now, I am happy that at the very most I only have one week to go. Hopefully sooner, but we'll see what happens!

We would still love your prayer concerning the timing of everything, and also the size of the baby. Next week I have an appointment 4 out of 5 days, which can be rather taxing to go to, but also to find babysitting, etc. for. So, please pray that the final stretch goes well. We are excited to meet our sweet girl!

Picture Time!

2011-01-16T21:34:00.002-05:00

Just a few random pictures of the girls...

Ahh... we have such sweet and beautiful girls!

But they are totally weird too! (Those are Mr. Potato Head's glasses that he never gets to wear anymore).

Noa's new favorite thing to do is stack the toilet paper. She asked to take a picture with it.

It makes me laugh that she always gets so serious when she wants you to take a picture of her. Here she is in her little fire truck fort.

Babers just looked soooo cute today at church that Daddy had to take a few pics of her.

37 Weeks

2011-01-11T03:40:00.002-05:00

Well, in about a day. I feel like this is the slowest pregnancy ever on record. Ever. It is 4 a.m. and I've been up for about an hour and a half. The baby is so far up in my ribs, I keep getting the feeling that I can't breathe, so needless-to-say, it is a little hard to sleep.

Anyway, thought it might be a good time to ask for prayer. With every pregnancy we have tried to avoid a C-section, which we have miraculously, and successfully done the last 2 times. The doctors like to remind me that had they known how big Noa & Ruthie were, they would've been much more aggressive with pushing for a C-section. I'm glad they didn't because each birth was wonderful, safe, and actually very easy. I had no problem pushing Noa (9 lbs., 7 oz) out in 40 minutes and even less of a problem pushing Ruthie (10 lbs., 4 oz) in 20 minutes. I seem to remember it being 3 big pushes. Anyway, even after talking with my doctor once again about my "proven pelvis," I feel rather discouraged after today's appointment. Let me bottom-line the details for you.

1. I am aware that I have big babies. I have no hopes of this one being 6 lbs. or anything. The only problem is that no one can tell, with any accuracy, how big. So, decisions based on size alone are incomplete. (Can't think of a better word right now, but you know what I'm saying).

2. The structure of babies born to a diabetic mom is different. Their trunk is larger and their bony structure is potentially wider, if that makes sense. The doctors get very concerned about shoulder dystocia, which means the baby gets stuck after the head comes out. They can usually use different maneuvers to get the baby out, sometimes having to pop the clavicle out of place. While this sounds rather horrific, in our discussions with the doctors, it doesn't seem as terrible as it sounds. What is frustrating to me is that it won't necessarily happen. Actually, it happens in normal size babies just as much, as far as I understand it. The unknowns of a potentially difficult delivery are what the doctors are trying to avoid. I understand that. Sort of. But if it is do-able, and if the majority of babies recover well after such an event, I don't mind going that route.

3. A C-section is a major abdominal surgery! They act like it isn't. This really bothers me. I have a 2 year old, a 1 year old and a brand new baby to think about! While I'm sure I would have a lot of help, it is hard to get my mind around electing for that type of major surgery when the recovery could be much more difficult and much longer. It seems that the doctors give me all the risks of delivering a large baby (over and over and over again), but when suggesting this route, they don't seem to mention the risks. Also, the American College of Obstetrics and Gyn (whatever it is called - their own group) says that large babies are not a good reason to elect for a c-section and that the outcome is no more favorable (and potentially worse) than a vaginal delivery. I don't ever hear about this in my appointments.

My mind is getting a little foggy. I need to go back to bed. BUT... to let you know what is happening in the next 2 weeks:

1. I will most likely go to MUSC for some type of ultrasound, where they try to measure (once again, with a great deal of inaccuracy) the bony structure of this baby. I didn't have to do this with the previous two, which makes me think it is more ammunition for the doctors to say a c-section is necessary. Anyway, maybe I'll get some good pictures out of it... who knows. I think it is a rather worthless thing to do since we already know this is a big baby. That is not in question. What is in question is how we will handle the delivery of a big baby. I'm not sure this ultrasound will help with that...

2. They will not do anything (induce, etc.) before 39 weeks because the baby would be pre-mature. I appreciate this. With the last 2 pregnancies, my water broke (with no contractions following) at 39 weeks, so my body was ready when they induced (because I wasn't having contractions on my own).

What you can pray for:

- I have 2 OB appointments each week until the baby comes. These can be awkward and confrontational. Currently we feel peace about aiming for a vaginal delivery, even with a big baby. This can be a point of contention as my doctors really want to schedule a C-section. Russ usually isn't there and I'm terrible at difficult conversations like this! Pray for strength and clarity as I/we have these difficult conversations.

- I am hoping and praying for spontaneous labor to start on or before 39 weeks. I would hope to then just have a regular, vaginal delivery -- no interventions needed.

- Pray that the shoulders would not get stuck.

- Pray that if we have to have a c-section, that somehow we would know that it is necessary and we would feel peace about it. I just can't get my mind around having that type of surgery if it weren't necessary.

I'm sure there's more, but it is time to go back to bed. I know that when these types of prayer requests are not your own, they don't seem that urgent. Obviously, trying to navigate through this birth is very much on my mind, and I would appreciate your prayers. :) Above all though, we hope and pray for a healthy mom, healthy baby... we know that is more important than the type of birth. In the meantime though, we also love to let our dear Father know our desires and our requests.

Thanks!

2011

2011-01-03T14:58:00.005-05:00

For me, I kind of feel like 2010 was the year of complaining and accomplishing nothing. I know that can't be entirely true because I obviously have given all my time to keeping 2 little girls alive and for the most part satisfied (that's gotta count for something, right?). But truthfully, I would like to aim a little higher in 2011. Hmmm. We're 3 days into it and I'm already not sure how it is going.

New Year's Eve was kind of off my radar because I spent all day and night throwing up. I guess I caught some 24-hour bug and just laid on the couch for what seemed like forever. With the other 2 pregnancies, I was never sick late into the pregnancy, but it sure wasn't fun having a terrible stomach ache and also being kicked from the inside constantly. Thankfully, Saturday I had a chance to recover a little bit and Sunday I was officially done leading worship and didn't have to be in extra early for that...

Then there were the fireworks. I've never been into them much, but having small kids that stay up all night because they're scared of them is especially irritating. I about got my big pregnant butt in our mini van to drive around and give everyone a piece of my mind. Thankfully, I realized that it only happens twice a year (4th of July is another favorite) and we all went to sleep around 4 a.m. Yes, it was that bad. Yikes.

Sunday after church the girls suddenly came down with a terrible cough and pink eye in both eyes. It came out of nowhere! We spent yesterday afternoon at the hospital in the after hours clinic (not the speediest place around) and once again, everyone finally fell asleep around 1 a.m.... Kids are just crazy when they're sick. Everything from getting the eye drops in their eyes to their continual waking (because of coughing) pushed us right over the edge. I was about to check myself into a mental facility. Sometimes I wonder how single moms do it. I am so thankful for Russ who has been a constant help and source of encouragement during these last few months (yes, months) of sickness in our house.

This morning, after another terrible night of sleep and pink-eye goop and snot everywhere, I decided the only thing that would help was a donut. I really love donuts. So, we all got in the car and went to Dunkin Donuts, which I think I've only been to one other time. The girls were covered in chocolate, I was covered in smiles, and skinny Russ abstained. I don't get it. Anyway, here's a picture of Noa. She wanted to take a picture by the "D's" since she's learning her letters. She was really mesmerized by them. Does she look awful or what?!?! But somehow still sweet... Ruthie looks almost as bad, but didn't care about the "D's" so we have no picture of her.

So... I'm wondering what the Lord is drilling into us. Most likely more dependence on Him, more joy in our circumstances, and hearts full of thanksgiving for how He has blessed us. So many days go by (maybe all of 2010) when my heart is not focused on these things at all. Self abounds. We are a work in progress...

I'm learning that His grace is sufficient for each season though. And I already know 2 great things about 2011!!! #1 - In about 3-4 weeks I will be holding a new and sweet little member of our family! and #2 - In about 3-4 weeks I will no longer be pregnant! It couldn't come too soon.

A Post Only a Grandparent Would Like

2010-12-25T13:53:00.004-05:00

All videos!

Merry Christmas so far!

2010-12-25T11:48:00.005-05:00

We have yet to go to Pops & Nana's house today, but the girls had a blast opening all of their gifts this morning. Noa was in a terrible mood due to keeping her out late just about every night this week, but as soon as we started with the presents, her mood turned around a little bit. Thankfully. All in all, it was wonderful but so much work! Russ and I are already exhausted and it is only noon.

Here's some pictures of the Christmas Eve service last night. Unfortunately, these were the best we could get. Noa was in the worst mood and just kind of whined around. Ruthie is getting too fast to sit still for a good picture...

After the service we let them open one present (which was their jammies for the next morning, which was still very exciting for them).

And here we are this morning in our new jammies!

Ruthie needed help at first, but quickly got the hang of opening the presents (and wanting more) and was actually a little speedier than Noa. Noa kept getting side-tracked, wanting to examine each gift before moving on.

Noa wanted to hold all of her presents at once the whole morning...

Grammy sent Noa these things for her hair, but because there was two of them, she thought they were earrings. So she walked around with these on for a while... her Avatar look. Weird.

We have some videos and more pictures to come, but thought this would hold all the grandparents off for a while. Much love as you celebrate Jesus' birth today!

Snowmen!

2010-12-17T19:55:00.004-05:00

While everyone else in the US is building real snowmen, our neighbors gave us their light up snowmen when they found out Noa was in love with all of the snowmen in the neighborhood. How sweet! So now we are the proud owners of, "a Mommy one, a Daddy one, and a Baby one snowman," according to Noa. :) We have one out front and two in the backyard. Here's some pictures of her as soon as we put them up. She was giddy! She kept wanting to feed them dirt out of the garden and kept hugging and kissing them.

She kept saying, "Mom, take a picture of me with the snowmen," and then just stood right next to them with her hands clasped like it was something formal. So funny! Unfortunately, right after this picture, they kept blowing over because it was so windy, but I think she liked feeding them dirt and nursing them back to health - so she didn't care!

Ruthie wanted to play outside too, but she didn't care too much for the snowmen and opted to stay on the porch.

It is soooooo nice having everyone back up to speed. Ruthie took her last dose of meds the other day and it seems like we're finally well around here, just in time for Christmas!

Healin' in the House!

2010-12-05T13:46:00.003-05:00

That's what we need! Here's what we've been dealing with lately...

Poor Babers looks terrible! This picture makes me want to cry!! It was taken yesterday morning. We had to take her back to the doctor on Friday because her sinus infection just wasn't going away, so they put her on stronger antibiotics, which seem to be helping thus far. Unfortunately she's reacting to it and has spots all over her body. She seems to be getting better, but yesterday morning she looked and felt awful! Poor baby.

Chicks was diagnosed with bronchitis earlier in the week and has been on antibiotics as well. Thankfully, they seem to be working and she's acting like a different person. It was getting bad for a while! I couldn't handle one more moment of her attitude! Here's our little fashionista wearing Daddy's socks and Mommy's glasses. Actually, she's not calling us "Mommy" and "Daddy" anymore. She's much too cool for that! Now its just "Mom" and "Dad." She's entered the stage where she constantly asks us (or kind of demands) to watch her do things - "Hey Mom. Watch this." "Hey Dad. Watch this" - followed by absolutely nothing worth watching. Oh well. We still enjoy it. :)

So, it has been a long road, but hopefully we are on the mend. Russ and I still have not gotten sick (Thank you, Father!) but are worn out from taking care of everyone else's sickness and not getting much sleep. We would appreciate your prayers as we head into the busy Christmas season! We hope to be done with all of this by the time Christmas arrives, giving us one month of "freedom" before the new baby comes and adds her spin on our days and nights. :)

Catching Up

2010-12-01T13:07:00.002-05:00

Now that it is December 1st, I think I can smile again! November was a difficult month at the Miller house!! We started the month off with Noa throwing up for a few days (thankfully Ruthie never caught it). She managed to hit every room in the house, so me and my big pregnant belly were scrubbing down carpets, stripping beds, dismantling the sofa, giving bath after bath after bath. It was quite the week. From there we moved right into some crazy cough that has been here for 3 weeks now! Adults having a cough is one thing, but kids don't know how to deal with it. At night, the girls (especially Noa) would just cough and cough and cough as soon as they laid down, which obviously prevented them from sleeping well - and in turn prevented us from sleeping well. Ruthie's eventually turned into a sinus infection, which she's on meds for. I took Noa in today and they think she now has bronchitis, so we're now on meds for that too! I am thankful though, that Russ and I haven't felt sick the whole time. God's grace is very evident, even when we're pulling our hair out sometimes!

So, needless-to-say, this hasn't been the best month for pictures. I don't have any to post because pictures of sick, whiney kids are no fun at all. We love them though, and there have been so many joyous moments even in the midst of crank-fest-2010. Noa has been saying some really funny things! It is so interesting to see how their mind processes things. For example:

One night, we let Noa try a green olive for the first time. As soon as she took a bite she spit it out and said, "That's a bad one grape!" So now, at our house, olives are referred to as "bad one grapes." :)

Ruthie is still not walking. We are anxiously awaiting it. She could totally do it, she's just extra cautious. Hopefully by Christmas she'll be up and moving around. There is no lack of excitement with her though - she is definitely a funny kid with a huge personality. I would classify her as a tad more feisty than Noa, but I suppose we'll have to wait until her personality fills in a little more to see if that's true.

Anyway... as we move in to December, seems like there's so much to do! Russ' birthday is coming up in a few weeks and of course there are parties, Christmas shopping, baking, a TON of doctors appointments for me and the new baby... Lots to do. One thing you could all be praying for is that the pregnancy continues to go well, that the baby doesn't get gigantic (they keep talking about a C-section, which is not the end of the world, but I really don't want it), and that everyone stays healthy (and gets healthy) around here. Hopefully we'll have some cute pictures to post soon, but until then - much love!!

Some Fall Pics

2010-11-16T12:13:00.003-05:00

First things first... Here's Kate at 28 weeks (I think). Tummy is definitely getting gigantic. I think I might be ready to be done being pregnant - maybe forever. :)

And here's the best buds!

Noa Jane with one of her favorite outfits. She's definitely getting very interested in girly things. She always wants to show Daddy her outfits after she gets ready in the mornings. So sweet. :)

Pumpkin time!

Toddler bed time! Here's Russ & Vance after they finished building the second bed. They are still in our garage waiting to be painted. I really want my garage back, but I'm so so so not motivated to paint right now! All I want to do is sit on the couch!

Garden gone wild!! Obviously, we have not kept up with, nor uprooted anything in our garden. It started going bad when the squash and zucchini were taken over by worms and I was so grossed out I didn't want to go out there anymore. This was actually really early on. We did get some tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and herbs, but nothing beyond that...

Amazingly enough, Noa still finds little tomatoes and peppers that are hanging on for dear life. Today she found 5 tomatoes. None of them were in great condition, but she thought she hit the jackpot. Here's our little gardener digging in the dirt and letting the "windy" blow her hair. :)

Not the best picture to leave you with, but had to post it just because I'm so amazed at the size of those glasses on Russ' head! Nerd Alert! And don't even look at me - not worth it!

Mother's Morning In

2010-11-10T10:47:00.003-05:00

Today I took Noa in to the church, but Ruthie stayed with me because she has some kind of strange cough that amounts to nothing, but won't go away. I don't even think she's sick, but oh well, we're hanging out today. So, instead of having four glorious hours to get out and have time to myself, I have four hours at home, as usual. :) BUT, for each of my 7 readers this is good news! I am actually uploading a few videos for your enjoyment! Pictures of the last month to follow - but for now, here's the girls in action...

Two steps forward...

One step back... (Ruthie's preferred method)

Noa and her pumpkin.

Pumpkin Patch Day!

2010-10-23T20:59:00.007-04:00

Play area

Hayride and Feeding the cows

Picking out pumpkins

Cheerleaders!

2010-10-09T14:06:00.002-04:00

Here's Baby Kate at 23 weeks. Unfortunately we didn't have a Lions outfit for her. Maybe next year!

This picture was SO hard to get! And it isn't even that great! I think the Lord should've equipped kids with a slow motion button for both picture taking and when parents are about to go nuts. Our kids don't have one.

Here's one tired little Lions fan. Both of the girls were totally wiped out about 2 hours before we even left for the game.

How in the world did I capture this picture?! Noa looks like she's posing, but let me assure you, that was not the case! Doesn't she look old here?

And last but not least, here's Pops with his girls!

Cereals

2010-10-07T12:10:00.004-04:00

Noa wanted me to take a picture of her "cereals" to show everyone. Grandma & Grandpa Roberts sent this shirt down and she loves it! She keeps saying, "I wanna eat 'em!" Me too!! The main thing about this picture that I want everyone to notice though is that we are wearing long sleeves!!!!!! Finally!

On Friday nights we've been having Pizza night. We may have to change it since we're finding out that Noa doesn't really care for pizza (weird!), but she sure enjoys helping Daddy make the pizza (just like Caillou)!

We asked her to put the turkey pepperonis on and after a while we noticed that the pizza was still blank. She ate one and decided she would rather eat the whole bag than put them on the pizza. I don't blame her! :)

We love our yogurt around here! Especially Ruthie!

We do clean up pretty well too! What a sweet girlie! That bow stayed in her hair for about 3 minutes... oh well.

And Noa has a little message for everyone...

That's right. We decided on a name for girlie #3! Her full name is Katherine Rae Miller, but we'll call her 'Kate.' Katherine means 'pure,' and Rae is my Mom's middle name, a derivative of Rachel, meaning 'lamb.' Can't wait to meet you Baby Kate!

It's a Girl!

2010-10-01T13:22:00.003-04:00

Yes, it's true. Another sweet little girl. Somehow I feel like people will be bored with the news, as if we should be venturing into new territory by now, but I'm sure that's not the case, and we are both very excited to welcome another baby girl into our family. :)

Yesterday was a whirlwind of events surrounding the ultrasound (which is why I can't find the CD of images that we received at our appointment -- none of them were really good anyway, but when I find it I'll post some pics). It seems like we have been waiting forever to find out what this baby is, and as our technician measured a zillion little things at the appointment,she wasn't cutting to the chase. Finally, after about 45 minutes of fuzzy things on the screen that we couldn't decipher, Russ asked if she knew what the sex was yet and was just saving the news until the end or something. She said that she hadn't been able to see yet and that it was kind of driving her crazy. It was driving me crazy too. Actually, she was driving me crazy. I was a little concerned when I saw pictures of cats all over her bulletin board by her desk. But the fact that she was taking so long and didn't seem to be that concerned about the gender was really irritating me. I just wanted to know!

Then she leaned me up in the chair! She forgot to go back and look! Russ was like, "are you going to check and see if we can see what the baby is?" She said she forgot. What?! Get a life lady! You obviously don't have kids and don't realize how important this is!!! So, back down I went (full bladder, might I add). Later she sounded a bit more decisive about the sex, but her initial communication to us that "she was going out on a limb and saying it was a girl" was not very solid to me. There was nothing on the screen that we could identify as being a boy or a girl. When she left the room I bursted into tears, not wanting to leave without knowing what we were having after anticipating this day for so long. I was quite put off by our tech. The baby wasn't in a good position for the cute 3-D pictures either, so that was also very upsetting to me. I didn't feel like we had any good pictures to take home with us, and with the other two girls, I had so many cute ones that I would look at all the time until they came. What a dumb appointment.

A few minutes went by and she peaked her head in saying that she was waiting for the doctor. Russ asked if it were possible to just try and double check to confirm what she thought she saw (after all, she did it in about 30 seconds -so it shouldn't take that long). With the door still cracked, she looked down the hall and was like, "there's the doctor, I gotta go" and quickly shut the door! This totally felt insensitive, and actually kind of immature to me, and it made me cry all over again. And the doctor wasn't right there as we waited for another 15 minutes before he came in.

When he came in, all he wanted to talk about was my diabetes. As if I haven't talked about it enough with every doctor I ever encounter. I didn't want to talk about it. I wanted to know the sex of my baby! He went on and on about talking to my doctor, blah, blah, blah, even though he was happy with my A1C of 6.4 (pretty good). Do these people think I don't hear this every week? I'm so over it. Anyway, he left the room without talking about anything else other than that everything checked out. (I don't want to minimize that BIG BLESSING by letting you in on the rest of the story - we are very grateful that the baby is healthy.)

We got up to leave and on the way out the tech told us that the doctor also felt that it was a girl by looking at the picture. That was that. It was a tad bit inconclusive to me, which upset me more than I realized it would. It is way less fun to tell people with a looming doubt in the back of my mind. We got home after picking up the girls and realized we were locked out of the house. Russ had to leave for a meeting about 20 minutes after we finally got in the house. It wasn't the fun day I had anticipated. Russ and I didn't really have any time to talk about the thought of having another girl.

But, with all that said, we both felt it was a girl, so we're on the hunt for girl names. And if it's a boy rather than a girl, I guess we'll just run out and buy some blue sheets or something... as it is, we're going all pink! :) Either way, we praise our Father for the beautiful gift of life and can't wait to meet this sweet baby girl.

Pictures to come.

Boy or Girl?

2010-09-28T14:11:00.004-04:00

Alright. Here's your chance to let us know what you think! Ultrasound is on Thursday.

Do we have a boy in the mix?

Or are we destined for a house full of sweet girls?

Side note: Russ couldn't take the pictures of the "real" boy & girl - too grossed out - so I changed it. Those were weird dolls!! Anyway, I was looking for more footprints for the boy, but all I could find was a girly pin with charms on it. If we have a boy he will never wear a pin like this, but I might start.

My vote is: I DON'T KNOW! How boring is that?! This week I have thought girl though - so we'll keep it at that. I have been wrong many, many times... :)

We'll be sure to let you know come Thursday!

Grammy Visits! t

2010-09-27T12:55:00.003-04:00

But first... Here's our sweet Babers with her favorite new buddy, Snoopy! Nanny & Pappy gave him to her for her birthday and she loves to cuddle with him. Unfortunately, right after this picture, she was sick for a week and threw up all over him. Poor Snoopy. He's still drying out in the garage (yes - with throw up on him - does anyone else do things like that and not get back to them, or is it just us?).

We found out that Mom had never been to a hibachi (sp?) restaurant, so we decided to go to Miyabi's one night. What fun!! Noa and Ruthie loved the fire and we had a great chef (what are they called?) who did all kinds of tricks for us. I think Mom loved it too.

Mom was great about playing with the girls constantly. I had a little break for a few days! And the girls are still asking where Grammy's bed went (had one set up in Ruthie's room for her), so they definitely miss their Grammy!

On a weird side note. Look at all these blue pens I found in our junk drawer! Many of you may remember my post about Russ a few years back about how he has little "collections" of things without realizing it. I HATE these pens. I HATE THEM! He brings them home from his office and now they are barfing out of our drawers! They're going back tomorrow!

Other than that, the girls have been busy watching their Sweetpea Beauty DVD that my parents sent them. We watch it every day and know all the words! Ugh. Ruthie is close to walking - finally. She's been standing up by herself for a few seconds (then falling), so I'm hoping that she wants to walk really soon. We're going this Thursday for Baby #3's ultrasound. We really have no idea what we think the baby is. We change our minds every week - so it will be exciting to finally know, especially since all of my pregnant friends who are about a month or two behind me have already found out what they're having. Anyway... until then!

Charlotte Trip

2010-09-06T15:14:00.004-04:00

Last Sunday and Monday night, Nana & Pops were nice enough to watch the girls while Russ and I went to Charlotte for a get-away! I've never been away from either of the girls longer than one night, so as silly as it sounds, I was a little anxious about the trip. But, it was such a great time and a much needed break. We enjoyed just spending time together and reconnecting since lately we feel like all we do is get the girls dinner and baths and diapers and all of those things...

Russ had flowers waiting for me when we arrived at our suite!

We weren't totally alone, though. Here we are at Pottery Barn Kids (the perfect back-drop for a picture, with all of the things I desperately "need" for the new baby :). Baby #3 is about 18 weeks in this picture. Belly looks a little strange because of my pants, but anyway, there you have it.

We also went to one of our favorite restaurants (the only one that Charleston doesn't have - which is probably good for our wallet) P.F. Changs! We actually went twice! I have some pictures, but it is really too dark to see anything but a weird chinese statue in the corner - so why post those?

When we came home on Tuesday, we hit the ground running. The girls were their "full-of-energy" selves and we loved being able to squeeze them again!

Here's Noa with some little pig tails. She kept calling them her "little ponies." I chased her all over the house to get a picture until I finally cornered her by the toilet. Nice.

Cool Dude!

On Saturday we went down to the Farmer's Market downtown. The girls loved looking at all the people and their dogs and jumping in the big jump castles.

We were only a block away from the Children's Museum, so we decided to cool off inside for about an hour. Ruthie is finally getting old enough to enjoy some of the things they have there - which makes the trip a lot more fun.

Noa in the "Water Room"

What a great week! I wish Russ and I could dash off to some place every week!! We've gotta do it as much as possible before this next little one comes. Our ultrasound to find out what we're having (and more) is scheduled for September 30th - so less than a month and we'll know whether we're destined for a whole lot of girls, or if a sweet boy will break up the mix. We could care less - which I guess is a good thing since it is already determined anyway... :)

Go Lions!

2010-08-28T21:08:00.005-04:00

The JICS football team had their first home game on Friday night, so we decided to take the girls and cheer them on. So glad we went because it was loads of fun. Ruthie was a little bit pooped (o.k. A LOT pooped - way past their bedtime), but we did get to stay for a good bit of the game and you know, us girls don't really watch the game anyway, so it was the perfect amount of time.

We ended up losing (we were playing the best team and this was our first year for football), but the fact that our guys even scored on this team was a pretty big deal. So, we were proud.

Noa decided to root for Tyler (#8) who baby sat her once. Since then she's had a crush on him, thinking every guy with shaggy, brown hair is Tyler. He came up and said 'hi' to her before the game started, but had his helmet on so she got scared. Funny. But all during the game she said, "Go Tywer! Go Tywer!"

Ruthie was rooting for Andrew (#21) the quarterback, who is also a PK. :) She wouldn't really let me get the 21 on her face so I knew that trying to write "Go Lions" wouldn't work at all. This was pretty much her face the whole game - tired little Babers!

Noa hung out with Gracie the whole time. They chased each other around, waved their pom poms and watched the little girl cheerleaders. So precious.

At one point, the cheerleaders were doing a cheer and Noa couldn't take her eyes off of them. As soon as they were finished, she turned to the crowd and started swaying back and forth to the ABC's while clapping, as if this was her own version of the cheer! She sang the whole song (loudly) and even got some applause when she was finished! She also had a tiny megaphone and kept picking it up yelling, "Go Wions! Go Wions!" It was the cutes thing I've ever seen. So of course, now we HAVE to get her a little cheerleading outfit! :)

All in all, it was a great time. Lots of friends, lots of fun, and it kept the girls entertained for a long time! Go Lions!

4:30 a.m.

2010-08-26T05:00:00.002-04:00

Here's what happens when you're up at 4:30 a.m. with nothing to do... Find cute pictures of your kids!!! Yeah, this morning I was just so hungry (Baby #3 must be going through a growth spurt) I decided to get up and eat! Hopefully, I can go back to sleep very, very soon. But in the mean-time...

Here's Chicks with her new favorite thing - Daddy's IPod. Cute, but so annoying. The ear things are too big for her ears, so she's always whining to us about helping her get them in correctly. Not fun. Find another toy Chicks!

This is Babers new favorite thing - Chicks pushing her around in the highchair. Actually, they both like it. I know we're probably irritating everyone in Chick-fil-a, but it keeps them busy for a while and they haven't told us to stop yet!

Look at Babers' face!

Here's hoping Baby #3 (can we PLEASE hurry up and figure out if you're a boy or a girl?!) is as beautiful as this sweet little baby... :) Just kidding - that's me. But we are READY to know what this new baby is!!! Probably another month though. Ugh.

Cookie Face

2010-08-24T20:52:00.004-04:00

I always said I wouldn't have kids with messy faces and snotty noses, but I guess it is just a constant reality now. :)

But sometimes we give them baths... Either way they are incredibly beautiful, don't you think?!

Wanted to give Lukie (Russ' great uncle) a shout out. He turned 80 the other day and we took the girls to his party. They both ate their fair share of cake and Lukie smiled, so it was definitely worth it!

Ruthie's B-day continued

2010-08-17T09:19:00.003-04:00

Ruthie just keeps getting packages in the mail for her birthday! It might as well be Birthday Month!! Anyway, here she is with her "helper" opening a gift from my Mom. Noa, of course, thought all of the presents were hers, but I guess it was fine, because Ruthie is good at sharing.

The biggest birthday treat was Ruthie's new foward-facing car seat! She's been listening to Tales DVD's for months without seeing them. Poor thing! When we put her in, she had quite the poker face (she's a little more reserved) but couldn't help but crack a few smiles. It was so sweet!

She was immediately mesmerized by the movie.

The Miller Family

Thankful Thursday: Slacker Edition

Lydia's First Birthday

Ya With a Walker

Visit from Grandpa, Grandma, & Murphy

Answered Prayer

The guys are down....

Sweetest Baby in the World

Church Christmas Program

O.k. So I'm a little weird...

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Busy and Sick. Still Beautiful.

Grammy & Abby Visit

Loins

Bee Cool at Bee City

Noa's First Day of School

Ya-Ya

Girls puttin' on a show at B&N

Lifelong Friend

Queen of the Fairest

Random Iphone Pics

Computer Problems

Surgery

Nana's Quilt

One Heck of a Post! Videos too!

Until next time, Michigan...

Quilting Again

Thankful Thursdays

I *heart* Ruthie

How many kids can you fit into a kiddie pool?

Thankful Thursdays

Summer is Here

Thankful Thursdays

Thankful Thursdays

Quick Little Post

Our future's so bright...

Thankful Thursdays

Waterfront Park

Thankful Thursdays

Noa's Birthday Party

Thankful Thursdays

Too cute not to watch

Church Pics

All Smiles

I am Famous!

Mom Tip of the Year

Finally got the Bella Baby Pictures in! :)

Noa's First Haircut

The Year of the Sink Bath

Look Alikes

Can I Hold Her?

Can't Think of a Title

What We've Been up to Lately

Lots of Pics!!

Bella Baby Photos

Day 3

Lydia Kate Miller

The New Latest

The Latest

Picture Time!

37 Weeks

2011

A Post Only a Grandparent Would Like

Merry Christmas so far!

Snowmen!

Healin' in the House!

Catching Up

Some Fall Pics

Mother's Morning In

Pumpkin Patch Day!

Cheerleaders!

Cereals

It's a Girl!

Boy or Girl?

Grammy Visits! t

Charlotte Trip

Go Lions!

4:30 a.m.

Cookie Face

Ruthie's B-day continued

I heart Ruthie