Grandma Iyla

The last few weeks have been so busy. Which means I haven't been blogging. Which means I'm way behind. Which means I don't know where to begin. Which makes me feel overwhelmed. Which means I don't blog. It's a vicious cycle!

Exactly 2 weeks ago my Grandma Iyla turned 95 years old! And then just 3 days later she died. She was an amazing woman. She had 3 daughters (one, my momma) and they were all standing around her when she died. It was very peaceful. She knew Jesus to be her Lord and Savior and loved him for many, many years. We know right where she is now.

She went into the hospital with pneumonia on Friday. When my sisters and I heard this we rushed down to Arkansas City on Saturday to see her. The prognosis wasn't good and we wanted a chance to say goodbye. Also, Miss Margo had not met her Great Grandma yet and I wanted to make sure that happened. It was a sweet time. I'm so thankful for that soft nudge from the Holy Spirit to go see her. She died the day after we left.

Margo will not remember meeting her great grandma, but I will never forget.

10 years

Ten years ago I walked down the aisle to the man of my dreams. Really. I used to day dream about marrying him and having his babies.

It was a wonderful wedding day. Perfect in every way (except for a crazy DJ, although that's a story for another day). But really it was just the beginning of an amazing 10 years of marriage. Just day to day, real, hard, joyful, beautiful, marriage.

June 10, 2010

Summer?

This momma of 4 says "bring it on".

This thing was a beast to put together. Thanks babe! When I saw that the hardware alone took up an entire 8ft table, I had my doubts. But he had no problems at all (besides finding the time to work on it). Let's just say there were a few late nights spent reading directions in the dark.

The large black area is now all filled in with mulch and it looks so nice! Now we need to get to work making the rest of the yard look nice. Or maybe not. Time is a hot commodity right now and the yard is not at the top of that list.

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I've been thinking a lot about summer these days (Brennan's last day of school is Tuesday!). Last year I let summer run me over. This year I'd like to be in charge. I'm trying to get the toys organized inside, I've made chore charts, I'm working on a Job Jar and a Reward Jar. I've got big ideas, but we'll see what pans out {grin}.

What are you doing to prepare for summer? Do you feel the need to organize your house before it begins? Do your kids have organized activities or do you just chill at the pool all summer? Seriously, I'd love to hear how you all do things. I love hearing others' ideas, so leave a comment!

Mothers Day

And what a wonderful day it was.

When your children are all under the age of 7 and daddy works in a church, there is not breakfast in bed (I don't like crumbs in my bed anyway!). But there was lunch in a restaurant, homemade cards, sweet kisses and hugs, a husband who didn't have to go back into work, a nap, a great dinner and lots of lounging around.

A sweet day indeed.

I love being a mom. It is the hardest thing I have EVER done, but I do love it. There is nothing else I'd want to do right now. I'm not "putting my dreams on hold" in order to raise my babies. These are my dreams. I feel like I'm doing exactly what God created me to do. Someday there will be time for other things, but I will always be a mom.

(And just to keep things real, I wrote this after putting 3 kids to bed, 1 crying for daddy, 1 crying because he couldn't stay up later and 1 asking a million question about tomorrow. There's a mountain of laundry to fold, dirty floors, a baby to nurse, bathe and put back to sleep. Whew. I am WAY underpaid, but I still wouldn't want to be doing anything else...except for maybe sit on the couch and eat ice cream {grin}.)

2 months

Miss Margo Mae is two months old! In some ways it feels like she's been with us much longer. And then I think back on her birth (yes, eventualy I will post her birth story) and it seems like only a few days ago. Time is a funny thing.

She is pure JOY. A very happy baby indeed. People keep saying "of course she's easy, she's #4" and there is probably lots of truth to this. But I really think it's God's grace on our family. Life with 4 small children is CrAzY, Margo is a sweet cherry sitting happily on top.

A couple days ago she had her 2 month immunizations, and we found out that same day we have a lovely case of thrush. That night Tyler was out of town so it was just me and the kids. Well, Miss Margo's little legs must have been really hurting her (or maybe it was the thrush?) but she cried more that evening than in her whole 2 months of life. It was rough. You know how the continuous sound of crying can begin to frazzle your nerves? Well, I wasn't the only one frazzled, the other kids hated it!! Brennan kept asking "why did you give her shots today? Why did you have to do that to her?" Calvin and Charlotte kept walking in out of the room like they weren't sure what to do. We were all very ready for bed that night.

Some stats:

12lbs 13oz (up over 4 lbs from birth!)

23.5 inches

Focuses on faces

Smiles!

Sleeps 9 hours at night (thank you Jesus)

Moving into her 3-6 month clothing

Sweet Cheeks

What's that? You want to see more of those cheeks? Alrighty then....

She's Smiling!

But it's very hard to catch on camera....

(and check out those cheeks!)