celebrating family!

what a special celebration we had last weekend! brian's grandmother's 90th birthday and his grandparents' 69th wedding anniversary was last sunday, and we spent the day with them on saturday to celebrate. what a blessing to commemorate the faithful marriage of brian's precious grandparents for all of these years and to wish his wonderful grandmommy a very happy birthday. grandmommy is one of a kind, to say the very least. :) she has had a rough year after suffering from a bad fall last summer, which required brain surgery and therapy afterwards. she is one tough cookie, and it is so good to be able to hug her neck every time we visit. God is good!

it was also perfect timing to introduce amelia to brian's extended family! everyone was there except uncle tom and aunt pam... (we missed you guys!!) amelia just relaxed while i handed her off to the relatives, though she did give me a "where in the world am i, and who are these people?!?" look a few times! haha!

here's a peek into our busy day of celebrations. i only took one of these pictures, by the way. the number of dslr cameras in our family is growing, so my new pasttime is mooching pictures off of the people with better cameras than ours! so thanks, aunt joanie and jeff & kristie!

the kids had fun singing happy birthday to grandmommy and blowing out her candles for her! she didn't even get a chance to blow out the candles before the kids beat her to it... so we lit them again and sang again. (the kids didn't mind!) so then she called granddaddy over and asked him to blow out her candles for her. you know, the ones we relit so that she could blow them out?! well, then the two of them ended up in this huge discussion over who was going to blow out the candles. :) and now i can't even remember who ended up blowing them out. probably the kids! i love this picture-- it looks like grandmommy is telling caroline, "get back, girl! it's MY cake!"


here are the lovebirds after 69 years of marriage! one of my favorite memories of the two of them is from when we stayed at their house shortly after ethan was born. as granddaddy and grandmommy went to bed, i could hear granddaddy singing to his bride. i will never forget that. oh, to still be so in love after all of those years. :) what a wonderful example of faithfulness they are to us.


we managed to pull off a family picture, even though the kids were missing a very much needed nap! (we bribed them with cake.. works every time!) i realized after we left that i did not get a picture of aunt joanie holding amelia, but she did get to hold her for the family picture. :) so i thought i'd highlight her here!


here are grandmommy and granddaddy with their grandsons and great-grandchildren. this is such a keepsake of a picture to me. i have heard grandmommy say on several occasions that they have always prayed for brian and jeff every night. what a blessing i bet it is for them to see their prayers answered and to see these little boys all grown up to be such godly husbands and fathers!


granddaddy and grandmommy loved meeting amelia. grandmommy was the first to hold her when we arrived, and she probably got her hands on her at least 3 other times after that!


mama hawkins also came over to join the festivities and to meet baby amelia. she gave her the cutest little red tennis shoes that i need to put on her before they are too small!


and aunt glenda and uncle joe finally got to hold amelia! those great grandmothers can be awfully stingy at sharing babies, ya know! :) uncle joe is one of those men that just loves holding babies, and it is so sweet to see him with my kids.


it was an absolutely gorgeous day, and the kids had a ball playing outside with nana while i stayed busy passing around amelia to everybody inside. after (a million rounds of) ring around the rosy, the kids kept themselves busy in grandmommy's backyard garden. that's when kristie captured those sweet pictures of caroline. isn't this a great picture of nana and the grands?! too bad she's not any fun.



so it was another fun-filled day with brian's wonderful family...we're praising God for so many reasons to celebrate!

baby of mine

still for a minute

aunt kristie captured these precious pictures of sweet caroline this past weekend. i love how the color of the flower pops against caroline's black and white shirt. i love how the sun makes her hair almost glow. and i love how this little girl steals everyone's heart that she meets...




oh, sweet caroline... what ever are we going to do with you?

amelia is 1 month old!

our baby girl is already one month old! in some ways, it feels like so much longer than a month (especially at 3 AM!)... but most of the time it feels like yesterday that i was waddling around wondering when this baby would ever get here! amelia has been on an incredibly wonderful routine the last couple of weeks, and i was just hoping it would stay that way. welll.... the last few days have been a different story. she is sleeping well at night, but she has been really off during the day. i'm wondering if it's a growth spurt, if she's suffering from a little congestion after the rest of us have all had colds, or if she's just tired of being such a great baby! (i vote for the first option!!) i'm gonna make this short so i can get some rest. amelia finally fell asleep a little while ago--i should get in bed while i can.

despite her cranky napping lately, amelia is still a sweetheart of a baby! we are loving every day with her, and we are so humbled and thankful to be called by God to take care of her. happy one month birthday, baby girl! we love you!

my little valentines!

these are my favorite pictures since amelia has been born... brian had to be at church early on sunday, so i was in charge of getting the rest of us to church all in one piece. WELL, we were not only all in one piece. we were dressed in red for valentine's, we were ready a little early, and we took cute pictures before heading out the door! go mom! (nevermind that caroline fell on the way to the car and ripped her tights... but that is pretty much par for the course. her tights last an average of 1.3 weeks these days! she doesn't realize that they're not supposed to be disposable!)

anyway, i just thought i'd share these sweet shots of my sweet children. hope you had a wonderful valentine's weekend! brian and i were able to have a date night saturday night, and amelia did GREAT without us! ethan fed her a bottle for the first time, and i will have to share those pictures soon. too cute. alrighty, well, enjoy these pictures of our blessings.


i can't believe i got all three kids looking at the camera at the same time! (of course, amelia is more than cooperative at this point!)


amelia is absolutely adored by these two...

my little valentine!

pampered in the sweetest way!

amelia and i were treated to a wonderful diaper shower last week by kristie and other sweet friends in my church. what a blessing it was to celebrate amelia's birth with these ladies! some of these women remember when brian was born, so it is incredibly special to share our third sweet baby with them. kristie was the hostess with the mostess, as usual! look at these adorable heart-shaped cupcakes! with strawberry hearts and everything. :) i'm not really a cupcake kind of girl, but i ate one so i didn't hurt her feelings... (ha! you know that's a big fat lie! i think i ate at least FIVE!!!!) i've been told that our church used to traditionally only hold a baby shower for a mother's first baby... well, let me just say that things have surely been different in the last few years! we have been overwhelmingly blessed with a baby shower for each of our children. and this time, we were pampered with tons of pampers!! i know diapers are really no fun to buy for someone, but coming home with an estimated three months' supply of diapers is truly a wonderful gift! and some ladies couldn't resist showering amelia with some girly gifts, which i loved, too! here's a couple of shots of me in a sea of presents...



we had a fun time eating the beautiful food and playing some entertaining shower games! one of the games was for the guests to guess what was in my diaper bag... now ordinarily, this would be quite interesting, for the bottom of my diaper bag has a history of housing some forgotten items, including a very very rotten avocado! but in my nesting frenzy, i had just cleaned out the backpack before amelia was born, so the contents were pretty boring. sorry ladies!! back to the food (ha!)...look at this perfect cake!



amelia slept through the entire party, and everybody enjoyed passing her around. she came dressed to match the party: red and pink! :) i couldn't resist taking a few shots of the party girl...



and since both of us were actually wearing something other than our pajamas, i jumped at the chance to take some pictures with my sweet amelia!



yes, there were other people at this shower besides amelia, me, and kristie! but we had fun taking these pictures after everyone left. auntie kristie loves her newest niece! i love this one of the three of us...



and here's our loveseat packed full of diapers and gifts! everytime i open a new package of diapers, i will be so thankful for all of you that have blessed our family!


praise God from whom all blessings flow...

you gotta write these things down...

ethan and caroline have come down with a little cold, and we're doing our best to keep the germs away from baby amelia. (and praise the Lord for breastfeeding and the wonderful immunity it provides!!) well, tuesday night, ethan woke up at about 3 AM complaining of a hurting ear. after doing everything i could to try to get him to go back to sleep, he ended up in our bed. (i must also mention that amelia had woken up to eat at 1:30, so i had just gotten back to sleep in the last hour when ethan woke up.) anyone who has shared a queen sized bed with a restless, sick child knows how the rest of our night went. i really don't think ethan slept at all that night. i know i didn't. well, brian's alarm went off around 6:45, and as he crawled out of bed on very little sleep, ethan sprang up in the bed for about the 600th time. i told him, "ethan, you have got to go to sleep if you want your body to feel better..." and he adamantly proclaimed,

"but mom! it is so hard to go to sleep with people in the bed!"

well, what do you say after that?! :) after ethan was given more room in our bed, he happily slept till 11:00 yesterday and is thankfully feeling much better.


in cute baby news, amelia had her newborn checkup yesterday. she weighs 9 lbs, 9 oz and is 21 1/2 inches long. so her weight is in the 50th-75th percentile and her height is in the 90th percentile. the 90th! it will be interesting to see if she ends up being our tall child. (it wouldn't take much!) and i'm very hopeful that her feet will stay long and skinny so she can fit into all those shoes that caroline's chubby feet would not. (insert imagery of cinderella's wicked step-sisters trying to cram their feet into the glass slipper...)

i know i should have tons of pictures to post of our daily life, but i honestly haven't really taken that many these days. i know, you don't believe me. but it's true. amelia is still sleeping so much of the day (to quote ethan, "she's going to sleep again?!"), and she is doing so well falling asleep on her own in her bed. so most of the day, she's not available for photo shoots. :) she is starting to look around and brighten up those eyes when we talk to her, and i've even seen her sneak a couple of adorable smiles. so maybe i can catch a smile on camera soon. the kids are doing so well dealing with having to wait for my help if i'm busy with amelia. i was thinking today that one of the benefits to having a small house is that even if i'm in another room changing a diaper or feeding amelia, the kids don't feel too far away from me. i can usually still deal with a fight breaking out or a request for something without having to stop what i'm doing since there's no "other side of the house". :) of course, there's some drawbacks to having a small house, a sleeping newborn, and two very vocal children... but that's what white noise machines are for!

and the topic of the month seems to be "who does amelia look like?" the general consensus is that she looks like ethan, but every now and then, she will look like caroline. so the other day, my mom and i were in the living room with the kids, and i said to my mom, "see? right now, she kind of looks like caroline." and i followed that comment with, "no, she looks like amelia!" and without missing a beat, ethan replied, "that's because she IS amelia!" thanks for clearing that one up, son!

here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks at home...

ethan and caroline greet amelia with great excitement every morning. here they are on a lazy saturday morning in our bed. the bed with all the people in it. :)


amelia made her church debut at 10 days old. it was so wonderful to introduce her to everyone who had been eagerly waiting her arrival! even if half of those people just talked to her instead of me. :) ha! here we are at church on amelia's first sunday.


the kiddos have their favorite things they like to do with amelia... ethan loves to rub her head, and caroline insists on pushing her swing (that is already swinging, of course). here are the kids at their posts!



i wish i had a camera on my forehead to capture those wonderfully sweet moments with just me and amelia. the way she sleeps on my chest after a good meal is forever ingrained in my mind--her chin resting on her little folded arms... and those precious looks she gives me right before i lay her in her crib, as if to say, "nighty night, mommy!" well, i obviously don't have a camera attached to my forehead, but here is one shot of "my view" of amelia. oh, i could just eat her!


and who can resist a baby sleeping on her daddy?!?!?!


here are a couple of pictures from amelia's first bath at home a couple of weeks ago. the kids were a little confused when we didn't just plop her in the bathtub!



and here's our sweet baby girl showing off the adorable hat and blanket that aunt kristie made for her...



we continue to praise God for His goodness in our life. these children are a blessing, even when they do hog our bed. :) have a great weekend, y'all!

our cup runneth over!

over the last two weeks, we have been more than blessed with friends and family stopping by to meet amelia. several of you have brought meals to us, for which we are so grateful! what a huge blessing to be able to focus on our family for these two weeks without the added concern of what to make for dinner. (i've even been able to freeze some for next week! yay!) many of you have also come bearing sweet gifts for our baby girl, and we just cannot say thank you enough. and then there's the huge group of you who have bravely offered, "call me if you need anything". um, be careful because i just might take you up on that!!! we have truly seen the love of the body of Christ through your encouragement and help during this wonderful but tiring time. thank you, thank you, thank you dear brothers and sisters!

here's a little montage to document the visitors that amelia had for the first two weeks of her life. i didn't quite catch everybody on camera...so if you did come by and you didn't make it on the collage, you should actually feel quite accomplished to have escaped me and my camera! ha! i thought this would be something special to show amelia when she is older... 'cause this girl is LOVED for sure!

(click on images to enlarge)

amelia's homecoming

we were so happy to be able to bring amelia home the day after she was born! the kids could not wait to have their baby sister HOME! (and mommy and daddy, too, i suppose!) when i talked to ethan on the phone that friday morning, i told him that we'd be coming home after his nap, and he asked, "are you bringing amelia home with you?" as if to say, "that's your ticket in the door, mom. so you'd better have the baby with you!" we were hoping to leave right after the pediatrician checked amelia out at 2:15, but they wanted to run another blood test to check out her bilirubin levels, so we ended up waiting over an hour for the 30 minute test results to come back. then it was one thing after another, so it was about 5:00 when we finally got the ok to go... and we high-tailed it out of there! (amelia's bilirubin levels ended up being just fine, by the way...) here we are leaving the hospital and entering the reality of three kids at home! :) and we only had a 2 minute drive home to ponder that reality... ha! here is our baby girl already asleep before we got home. (the last quiet moments of her life!!!)


ethan and caroline were more than ready to greet us when we pulled in the driveway! (this picture reminds me of when we brought caroline home.)


and as if on cue, both kids put their arms out and asked to hold amelia as soon as they saw her.


here we are, a family of five!
if my memory serves me correctly (which is not exactly a guaranteed things these days...), i think that our first picture at home with each baby has been one of daddy snuggled up with his new child. i don't think we got one picture of brian holding amelia at the hospital... but in our defense, sweet amelia, we were only there one day! so here is daddy enjoying a quiet moment his new baby girl.


i say quiet moment because it was not long (at all!) before ethan and caroline came runnin' to see their sister.


oh, this girl knows how to melt her momma's heart!
she is such a loving big sister.

and speaking of being a loving sister, caroline immediately gave amelia this cute little baby doll that our pastor's family gave to her as a big sister gift. look at her- she is taking this "big sister" thing seriously! (and as you can see, nana is enjoying her third granddaughter!)


saturday morning was our first morning all together as a family. brian let me sleep in a little, and when amelia and i got up, ethan and caroline could not wait to hold her. and caroline could not wait to "tickle tickle" her.




normally, this next picture is one that would go straight to the trash, but i had to include it to document "the morning after" our first night at home with amelia. i look completely 100% sleep deprived after only two nights with this baby! oh dear! the really funny thing is that ethan does too. as if he was up all night feeding a baby. yeah right. (and just to clarify... i am not nursing her in this picture... she's just laying on me!)



amelia was so sweet and brought gifts home to her big brother and sister. (we actually forgot about them for a few days--can't imagine why!--so they were delayed homecoming gifts!) as you can see, ethan and caroline were only slightly excited when they found out about this surprise! for ethan, amelia found a very cool race car kit. the kit came in a tool box with a drill, screwdriver, and over 20 pieces that make up the car. and amelia is already a great bargain shopper, finding this at 75% off (less than $5!!) at target! what a deal! and ethan has already enjoyed taking apart that car and putting it together over and over again. caroline is really into soft blankets right now, so amelia gave her big sister (and herself) matching flower blankets! caroline was thrilled to have the same blanket as amelia... and she always--without fail--refers to this blanket as "my cute blanket". i need to get this on video. it's hilarious the way she says it. she takes a good 3 seconds to say the "bl" in "blanket". anyway, here are some pictures of the kids enjoying their presents from baby amelia.



here is nana with all three kiddos!
to top off amelia's homecoming weekend, aunt kristie brought over a delicious dinner that we shared with nana, pappy, uncle jeff, aunt kristie, and karina. and of course we had to celebrate amelia's homecoming with CAKE! why not! amelia slept through yet another little celebration in her honor, but we surely did not want to wake her!


these kids crack me up. they are taking this cake eating thing very seriously. (and look at my niece after my own heart... just licking off the icing!)


we are so thankful to have amelia at home with us. it is so easy to take for granted the blessing of a healthy child, and we praise God for His care and protection over our family thus far. to God be the glory!