Dear Ellie

Happy 4th birthday to our sweet Ellie Belle!

Ellie~
I love being your mama, sweet girl. You are so beautiful, inside and out. I love the freckles perfectly splashed over your nose and under each eye. I love how you help me pick out my clothes and jewelry and tell me, "I love you even when you don't wear a dress, mommy." Phew! I love how you enjoy letting your daddy do your hair and nails (it melts his heart!). I love how well you use language...your pronunciation and use of words is amazing!

I love how eclectic your personality is. You are rough and tumble sometimes...driving your car up the curb and laughing hysterically about it--and freaking out your big brother as he sits in the passenger seat! You are also very sensitive and fragile, always saying that the pit of your day (pit=least favorite part, peak=favorite part) was getting a boo boo. At times, you are incredibly shy. At your first gymnastics class you were literally frozen in place by your introversion. And other times you are very talkative, quite easily keeping pace with your extroverted big brother. One of my favorite things about you is that you love playing outside, getting dirty and sometimes bruised, in pretty dresses and nice shoes. There's something really charming to me about taking you to church in a pretty dress and tattered and dirty dress shoes. :) 

I love you Ellie, and it has been an incredible and blessed journey being your mother. I look forward to continuing to watch you grow and learn. Prayerfully, you will grow into a young lady who trusts Christ and loves Him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
~your mama

We celebrated Ellie's birthday party at Highbanks Park

I LOVE this picture of her. Her expression is classic Ellie. Beside her is her friend Eisley--they have become good friends and they're cute to watch together.

Mimi and Meemaw with their grandkiddos

all SIX of us!

Our Little Climber

"Will someone PLEASE feed me?"

Adalyn has been climbing on everything, A LOT. Dan found her standing on the dining room table a few days ago. I really wish he'd gotten a picture of her mischief. I am convinced that she will be our first child to have a broken bone. Of course, I hope I'm wrong and none of them ever have a broken bone....but I think Adalyn likes to keep us on our toes. ;)

Like Mother, Like Daughter

No, we do not have a mouse in our house. We have Adalyn. How did she know that after chewing through (and eating) paper, she would get to something so tasty? Smart girl.

Dresses, Bows and Nail Polish, Oh My!

My loving and supportive husband gave me the freedom to decide whether we'd find out the gender of our baby early or not...

We're having our THIRD girl!!! Woohoo!! The ultrasound tech said that all of her parts looked to be growing healthy and strong. Praise God!

We are very excited and blessed...and maybe a tad bit nervous to have three girls running around together (stirring up mischief?) :) We told the kids and Luke responded by wiping his brow with the back of his hand and saying something along the lines of, "Wow, that's a lot of girls!" Ellie was fairly indifferent, as she was busy playing with her cousin Jack. But I will say, that the prospect of Ellie having two roommates in the future does have her pretty excited.

We have a decent baby name list started, but none that have really grabbed us. It was a good 20 hours after her birth before Adalyn was named, so this baby girl might have to wait 40. :) So feel free to leave a comment with a few name suggestions!

Dan LOVES doing Ellie's hair, and I'm so glad because I think he has a lot of pigtails in his future :)

Flip, Flop and Roll!

Ellie's balancing act

Luke's table

nice form, Luke!

this girl's got some muscles!

they always do their stretches first

when can I join in?

Luke and Ellie started their first gymnastics class in early April and have loved it! It's been a lot of fun watching them grow and learn new things. Ellie was painfully shy at their first class. She was literally frozen still during all the stretching....would.not.move. Now she's flipping over the bars! It is so great when they try something new and then look over at me with huge smiles on their faces. Watching them gives this mama great joy!

I try to keep Adalyn busy with food and milk, but most of the time she's antsy to get out of the stroller and join her sibs. It would be convenient if she'd sit still during their lesson so that I could watch Luke and Ellie, but who can blame her? Her sibs are just having too much fun! 

Time of Transition

I know that the 2 or 3 people who read my blog have been waiting with great anticipation for my next blog post, so...I'm back :)

 I wouldn't want to hold you in suspense any longer.... We're going to be a family of SIX in October!! Woohoo! We are very excited to be adding to our family again, and we are incredibly thankful to God for giving us such a privilege. I am currently 16 weeks along and starting to feel better now that the 2nd trimester is well underway. Luke and Ellie are both very excited to have another sibling. Ellie wants to name the baby Morgan no matter what the gender is, and Luke informed us that he prayed to God asking for a brother and God said "yes." :) I really want to know the gender early this time, but Dan does not. Grr. I know I have a fairly high chance of a repeat c-section and I don't want to be sore, caring for 4 children AND doing laundry for the new little one....I'd rather have all the clothes ready early. It seems that thus far I have been unable to convince Dan of the convenience of finding out the gender early, so I suppose we won't be finding out. You see, there's this passage in the Bible about how wives ought to submit...

The last couple months have been very challenging, which is probably why I haven't posted in a while. Throughout the first trimester I struggled with overwhelming fatigue and fairly challenging nausea (no vomiting thankfully!). While I tried my best to deal with those symptoms, I was also trying my best to raise up a little girl, whose name might be Adalyn, whose temperament is incredibly strong-willed, stubborn and feisty. She cries and screams. ALOT. Like--I put in her crib and close her bedroom door 1-3 times daily--cries and screams. It's been very challenging, frustrating, and lonely. I have felt insufficient to meet Luke and Ellie's wants and needs (anyone love reading a book aloud to two older children while the youngest screams and claws at you?). These past few months have helped induce a number of fears. How are Luke and Ellie developing? Ellie doesn't even recognize all her numbers! Is Luke learning his phonics in a timely manner? Eek! Luke can't tie his shoes yet! How am I possibly going to homeschool this fall? What if the last few months are a reflection of how Adalyn and my relationship will be forever?! Where is my relationship with Lord going? When I have quiet time I either want to run away or sleep.

So needless to say, I have struggled the last few months. It's been a rough patch in my mothering journey and hopefully I will grow from it. At this very moment I feel defeated, but prayerfully God will redeem it. Adalyn is a beautiful and affectionate little girl who knows just how to melt a heart...I just pray that as God holds intact the feisty spirit He gave her, He also breaks her will so it grows into alignment with His. That's all for now. Someone's calling... ;)

The Things Kids Say

I was driving away from church today when Luke told me that Ellie had just hit him. I pulled over and talked with Ellie about what God tells us in the Bible. I asked her if she kew what God says in His Word and she said, "Obey your mommy and daddy?" I told her that was true, but that He also tells us to love one another. She admitted that hitting Luke was not showing love and told him she was sorry and asked him to forgive her. He said, "I forgive you, Ellie. Let's hug each other when we get home, alright?"

I love those kids.

Later in the day, Luke started talking about how much he wants there to be 3 girls and 3 boys in our family (including Dan and I), and he cried out, "Oh God, please let the baby be a boy!"