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!

celebrating january 22

kristie and i have a tradition of bringing donuts to each other in the hospital to celebrate each new baby. and being the silly women that we are, we also like to turn it into a little birthday party with candles and everything. :) (now our excuse is that the kids enjoy making it a party, but i'm not sure what our excuse was originally...) after we got settled in our room at the hospital, the party began! the 3 cousins looked so stinkin' cute all lined up on the end of my bed, and they had so much fun singing "happy birthday" to baby amelia. of course, caroline has been practicing this for who knows how long! and then out came the donuts. less than an hour before bedtime. but hey, i wasn't dealing with the kids that night. :) (haha, just kidding, mom!) for the record, i really only think they had 1/2 a donut each. but my new "mom of three kids" mantra is "i don't care". not about everything, but about things like donuts at 7:45 at night... especially on their sister's birthday! so anyway, after consuming x number of donuts, the kids were pretty wired. and the hospital room was pretty small. and though aunt kristie was so smart to buy a balloon for each of the kids, they all wanted the same one. go figure. those party animals quickly morphed into party poopers! so we kissed them good night and sent them home on a donut high. but it was a fun little birthday celebration for sweet baby amelia... i think she slept through every minute of it! and i managed to eat a donut and hold amelia without showering my newborn daughter in krispy kreme sprinkles!! oh the skills of motherhood. :) here's a few pictures from our birthday celebration...

here are the cousins piled up on my bed singing happy birthday.

this picture makes me laugh so hard. karina must have been
very paranoid about somebody snatching that donut! :)

sweet, sweet cousins. look at those identical little profiles!

here we are with amelia's wonderful aunt kristie!
thank you, auntie k, for the donuts!!
we are so thankful to God for such a precious reason to celebrate january 22nd. amelia has been a part of our family since the day we found out that i was pregnant with her. we have prayed for her and praised God for her little life that He was knitting together inside my womb. feeling amelia wriggle, watching my stomach bulge out as she pushed against my ever-growing belly, and seeing her grow through amazing ultrasound technology were all reminders that there was a child inside me. tonite at Bible study, brian pulled one of amelia's 34 week ultrasound pictures out of his Bible, and he put it right next to her sleeping in her car seat. we both grinned as we saw the same child on that paper as was sleeping contentedly next to us.

sadly, there are so many children in the womb who are not considered to be worthy of life, and their mothers make the horrible decision to terminate these precious lives. and they are celebrated and applauded and encouraged to do so. january 22 is roe v. wade day. abortion was legalized on amelia's birthday 36 years ago. while many feminists and pro-choice activists celebrate this day, christians and pro-life supporters use this day (and the whole week) to cry out for the sanctity of human life. i realize that birthing a baby on the anniversary of roe v. wade isn't exactly "fighting against abortion", but i guarantee you that amelia (and her siblings!) will understand the significance of her birthday and the horrible ramifications of that supreme court decision. and i pray that God will be glorified through the precious life of our baby girl, born on january 22.