My Daughter

 My daughter. The one who made me a mother, and who every day brings me to the end of myself. My patience is short, her questions are long. She is a leader. She is determined. She is nothing and everything like I thought she would be.

Yesterday morning, on the way to tend to a vacationing friend's garden (a blessing, as it will help to fill up our shelves for yummy eating through the winter), she was helping her little brother read their Children's Bible. About David, and how he protected his sheep from the lion and then His sheep from Goliath. About Daniel and how he was in the lion's den but did not get eaten. Her brother asked, "how did God do it?" She told him of His power. She said, "I will tell you how powerful He is. All He had to do was say 'tree' and there was a tree. There is nothing more powerful than God." So full of conviction, full of Truth, full to the brim with God-knowledge. How can I help but grow to be like her?

Lord, protect her believing heart. That when the enemy tries to convince her that what she believes is not real, she will have a strong foundation to stand on. Let her strength in You carry her on this path You pave ahead of her, and in her weakness may she draw closer to You.

And give me what I need to be the mother that she needs.

Way beyond her years

We were sitting around the table this morning, the children eating their breakfast and myself studying the Word. Hudson and Libby began talking about how they have a busy day because they will be helping Daddy and Papaw finish up putting in our new wall oven. Remi said her typical response when she hears someone saying they are going to do something, "Meeee, too!" This began an argument about how Remi wasn't going to help because she was too small.

Finally, Libby ended the argument with this:

"Remi, we have been around the block a few more times than you, so we know what we're doing."

I guess I've used that argument a few too many times with her.

A whirlwind and The Newsboys

Wow. So the story was obviously choreographed by God, and it goes like this:

This past Wednesday afternoon, Libby came running inside to tell me that I HAD to go outside to see what she wrote down the walkway in our back yard. I followed her out there, and listened and watched as she showed me how she wrote the lyrics of her favorite song, by the Newsboys, "God is not dead, he is surely alive. He's living on the inside, roaring like a lion."

I, of course, was very proud of her and was moved that this is what comes out of her heart. That evening, when we got home from church, Scott was out back taking out the trash when he saw her lyrics for the first time. He was moved to tears. She is six, is in kindergarten, and pouring out of her are songs about God.

The next morning, Scott sent an email to three of our pastors (who are also very good friends of ours) from church, encouraging them and telling them how much he appreciates them and how they teach and love our children and ourselves, and that he is seeing the fruit of that in our family. Right after one of the pastors read the email, he posted on Facebook about what Libby had written in chalk. I didn't know he had done this because I am not on Facebook, but three minutes later one of my brothers sent me a text with an image of the pastor's status update about Libby. My brother then posted something about it on HIS Facebook status, which my mom saw and then posted on HER status. Another of my brothers happened to be on Facebook at the same time, and he saw my mom's post. He replied to her that he was actually going to be seeing the Newsboys in a few days. My mom stopped by later in the afternoon on Thursday so she could see the walk way for herself, and when she was here she told me and Libby about how my brother and sister-in-law were going to be seeing the Newsboys in a few days.

On Friday morning, my sister-in-law was talking to my mom about the possibility of my mom going up for the concert, and by the afternoon it was decided that Libby would be able to go as well. My sister-in-law was part of the group of people who set the whole concert up, and they were able to figure out the ticket situation. When I got up Saturday morning, I saw a text from my sister-in-law from really late Friday night saying that they were able to get a ticket for me if I wanted to go as well. 

So, on Saturday afternoon, three days after Libby was writing the lyrics of her favorite song, she and I and my mom were in the car on our way to see the Newsboys in concert. We left right after her Saturday afternoon soccer game and got back this afternoon right before her Sunday afternoon soccer game.

My Libby girl not only got to go to her first ever concert, but it was one of her favorite bands. She had to wait through three hours of concert before her song was played, and by then she was almost asleep in my arms. But, as soon as they began playing the first notes of the song, she perked up and belted out the words with everyone else in the auditorium.
God loves each of His children, and He has good plans for us. The smile on my little girl's face before the music even began says it all :)

Six

She is almost finished with her kindergarten year, and loves being home-schooled.
She loves to play basketball and soccer, and is incredibly talented at both (she gets her talent naturally from her Daddy).
She likes her hair short because she doesn't like to fuss with it.
She would pick a truck sticker over a princess sticker, although she is always offered the princess one first.
She loves wearing lip gloss and having her nails painted, and is currently wearing a "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" sticker on her cheek.

How is it that it's been 6 years since she entered this world, tiny as can be, too small for her preemie clothes? I don't know how to be a mommy to a 6 year old! I never thought past the baby stage!! :) She and I are learning together.

Happy Birthday, my Libby-girl.

Those eyes

They tell so much.

Octamom issued a challenge of sorts, to shed some light on your eyes. She has some amazing green eyes, and her husband has blue. This resulted in a beautiful array of color in the eyes of their children. You should hop on over and check them out.

Scott's eyes are green, but when I enlarged the picture of his eyes, I discovered some hidden brown.


I come from a family of crystal blue eyes, and my eyes also have a hint of green.




When Libby was born, her eyes were so dark blue that they almost looked black. They lightened up to a clear grayish-blue, with that beautiful dark blue ring around the outside.


Hudson was also born with the almost black eyes, and now he has the bright bright blue.

Alright, let's see yours!

Friday Fam part deux..... some pictures!

I realized today that I haven't taken any pictures the last several days, mainly because it would be all snot and drool. But, with the beautiful sunshine coming through the windows this afternoon, I just couldn't help but capture some of the creativity.

For example: henna shmenna, who needs fancy henna ink when you have markers? If you enlarge this picture you will see the beautiful artwork on miss Libby's hands, and some on her face as well.


And then after the art session, Libby decided that it was her birthday today, so she made her own cake, put her own candle in it, and sang her own birthday song.



And then blew out the candle.



When I asked her how old she is on this birthday, she told me that she is 1.



And 5.



And throughout all of this fun, Hudson looked the same as he has looked the last several days..... pathetically adorable. Ps. that's not drool on his shirt, he moved when I was trying to have him drink his probiotic and I spilled it all over him. That is a tear in his eye, however. And, yes, snot in his nose.



And just because he's the family clown, no illness would keep him from giving me a smile or two...


or hitting the camera. Yes, he's a hitter.


And now, have a wonderful, renewing weekend!

Friday Fam.... A week in our home

We have had some very very cold weather this week, including below zero temps. Libby still wanted to go outside, though, so a very good friend of mine came over with her two girls, and the two older girls went out to play in the snow (Hudson and I were out there, too, but he was on my back). Once they were chilled to the bone (which didn't take very long) we all came inside and the girls warmed up under a blanket. I find it very comical to see pictures of Libby and Mallie together, because though Mallie is so much taller than Libby, she's only 3 months older.
And today we went to see our wonderful chiropractor, Dr. Letty. This is a monthly thing, and Libby does really well. Hudson still cries, but he'll get used to it. Our visits to Dr. Letty are life savers, because by the time that four weeks roll around, boy we all need it.



Have a great weekend! Try to stay warm, and if you live in warm weather, I wish I was there!

Embracing the soft

The theme over at Shutter Sisters on Tuesday was A Softer Side. The idea was to take a second glance at those blurry/out of focus/not quite right pictures instead of just deleting them or throwing them away and seeing if maybe, just maybe they hold something beautiful. Or even better yet, making a photo soft (read out of focus) on purpose to see just what turns out. I actually did this on purpose several weeks ago. Libby had taken the cushions off the couch (a regular occurrence) and was jumping back and forth between them on the floor. I wanted to get a shot of her that showed her movement from one cushion to another (although a still shot of her in mid-air would have been cool, too). Here is how it turned out. Once I looked at these I thought, "Hmmm, I wonder if this is how people get those 'there's a ghost in my house!' pictures."

And, just for smiles, I thought I'd show you how Libby was helping me vacuum the floor yesterday evening. She gets out her popper and goes throughout the room with me, popping right along. My little helper =) And don't miss the little guy, peeking over my shoulder!

Have a wonderful day, friends!

Climbing our way out

We are still recovering here, and boy it is an uphill battle. Libby was stick for quite a while (for her), and still gets sick here and there. She's eating and nursing alright now, but her body is still programmed to gag easily, and she has a cough that very effectively hits the trigger (I'm trying to use polite words=)). I am trying to be as patient as I can, but she has been pretty belligerent (boy that sweet little face can scream!), is whining most of the time, and Hudson has been really cranky as well. I finally told them both this morning that they had to stop whining, because I'm going to pull my hair out. They got the message. Now they're both sleeping, so hopefully this afternoon will go a little more smoothly.

In the meantime, I'm going to share a few pictures from before everyone got sick, because I haven't touched the camera since (you really wouldn't want to see what I could photograph, anyway).

This is a "castle" that Libby built with her cars and wanted me to photograph. Yes, I realize that it is horizontal and not vertical, but, hey, give her a break...she's 2 =)

And this is Hudson's new favorite game, and it has everyone wanting to play along and giggle their hearts out. He will crawl over the the bottom of the stairs and pull himself to standing, and as you crawl, or walk, or even look in his direction, he starts to giggle. The closer you get, the more he giggles, until you are both cracking up. Then right before you get to him he gets down and starts charging towards you, head down, hands and knees a'going. You wrestle for a bit, and then he crawls back to the stairs to start over. Notice he still has a purple mouth. We're still dealing with the thrush (which is also why he's in a disposable diaper and not cloth).


I hope you get to giggle today, because it's very good for the soul.

A Year in Review

I apologize for being fairly absent over the last week. As you know, we got sick, but Libby really got it bad. We finally took her to the doctor to get some medicine to stop her vomiting after 4 days of her not being able to eat anything without throwing up. That was Thursday, and she's still trying to get some energy back. She still isn't eating much, but she is at least able to nurse a lot and is keeping it down.

Anyway, since I didn't get this out before the New Year (did that really happen? It is a fog in my memory), here it is now. Here's a bit of a recap of our last year, beginning with little Libby, at barely 21 months old, "listening" to her soon-to-arrive sibling's heartbeat.


This is Scott and Libby near the end of my labor with Hudson. The looks on their faces pretty much sum up the way everyone present feels at the end of my long, drawn-out home births.

And so our family's third (first one being Daddy and Mommy's, second one being when Libby was born) love story began on the snowiest day in January. As you can tell, my pelvis was very unkind to his poor face.



















We have had a year full of growth, blessings, love, giggles, tears, and sleepy mornings. I look forward to this next year of more growth, new adventures, lots more giggles, lots more love, and many more blessings. I wish you a very happy New Year, and I pray that your next year will be full of whatever you wish it to be full of.