Gage's Visit

Yeah we get to swim

Are you sure we all fit?

Obviously the pool is made for little children.

Gage teaching Joselyn some new dance moves, I have to say this was pretty funny, they both dance like Chris!!!

Wrestle time.........

Let's play house

Joselyn pretty much sat on Gage while he was trying to play Wii

I fully intend on posting new pictures, but for some reason the computer does not want to upload the pictures currently. As soon as I can get them loaded I will post them.

Gage is in town for a few days, and the kids have been very busy playing! Gage can get Joselyn to laugh or squeal at anything, there has not been a quiet moment since he has been here. I have also realized how very thankful I am for my girls, boys are just plain dirty. Even when I know he is clean, or at least sanitized he is still filthy! They have had a blast, He arrived Tuesday night, and Blaina came over to play on Wednesday. And through God's strength I have had more energy the last two days then I think I have had in two years, another way I find God completely amazing! Check back for pictures, I am not very good with electronics, my husband believes I have technological malfunctions inside my body.

34 Week update................

My doctor's appointments are every week now, and as of Thursday I am 1cm dilated and 50% effaced. I was a little shocked when she told me this, I did not think you dilated so early after your first child. I have had increasing issues that have talked about in previous blogs, so I have been put on more medicine and am sporting some new support garments. Everything went well at the appointment, the baby is BIG already and head down ready to meet everyone. My Doctor and I discussed many things, bed rest and how I should be on it, but she realizes that I have a fifteen month old so she did not push the issue. She did an ultrasound to get a good idea of how the baby is laying. She told me no more traveling over an hour away from Carbondale. We also discussed a plan for these contractions I have been having, and she said to continue taking the meds for two more weeks, and then she thinks once I am off them the baby will come very quickly. I am to go to the hospital anytime the contractions make a pattern no matter how far apart they are. I have been told by my mother-in-law that she will not be very happy if I have this baby this week because she will be out of town, so I am going to try to behave on her behalf.

I have been experiencing a vast array of emotions lately, and am still in a state of shock that this baby might be here in two weeks. I am not ready, I know I would never fully be ready anyway, but it is all going to my head a little these days. I have started to pack everyones hospital bags, but nothing is finished and there is still a lot to be done, I am trying to listen to my husbands advice and remember she is coming whether I have the room painted or hospital bags packed. The second child definitely gets less of an organized parent out of me that is for sure. I am getting more and more nervous about labor and delivery, my biggest fear is that in the end she will be to big and I will have to have a c-section, or as always that we won't make it to the hospital. At the same time I am over being pregnant, not one of my finer moments, and can't wait to meet her and see how Joselyn will react to being a big sister. I am dying to loose this baby weight and am waiting to pull that new double stroller out and rack up the miles. We hooked the Wii up last night and I got on it for the first time in 115 days, lets just say my Mii character is now 29 pounds heavier and has no balance.

This part of the journey is getting ready to change our lives once again, and I am consistently confronted with God's Glory and Grace through it all! I pray that our family might seek to Glorify and honor him in all that we do!

Little Mommy..........

Blowing kisses

Daddy, she is my baby!

Taking baby for a walk

I am helping mommy sweep the floor, she's too fat to bend over.

I realize it has been a good while since I have posted anything so here is a little update on Joselyn. She has turned into a little mommy at just fifteen months old. She carries her baby doll around every where she goes and cares for it. We got her baby doll stroller out and she puts the baby doll in it and gives it rides all around the house. We have been getting "real" baby gear out and setting it up lately, and when I tell Jos something is for the baby she goes and finds her baby doll and puts it in.

This week was also the week we decided Joselyn no longer needed her pacifier. We had originally taken it away the week she turned one but she became ill and I gave it back because she was so pitiful. With the move in sight and just finding out we were going to have another baby I could not decide when was a good time so it got put off a bit. She has only ever been allowed to use it for naps and at bed time, but lately she has started to hide them from us and sneak off to her room and get it out during other times of the day. So, we decided now is the time, I have always been an all or nothing kind of person, so they are really gone, no more smiles through it in the morning when we get her out of bed, or seeing her tongue stick out the side when she is feeling silly. The baby days of my first child are quickly fleeting and she is turning into a little girl, well except she still has very little hair. Monday the first nap she threw her first real fit in life, kicking and screaming, the whole works. Another reason why I should never of given it back to her before, my mistake. The second nap daddy put her to bed and the same thing happened, this time I had to go to the basement and do laundry so I couldn't hear the screams. All day we would try and get her to go to her room to get a clean diaper or a change of clothes and she would cry and not want any part of it, this is coming from the child who normally plays in her room by herself for a good portion of the day. Then it was finally the dreaded bedtime, we read a story and tucked her in and I decided to stay and comfort her to avoid the screaming. She only woke up once in the night, and by the time I got back to her room she had already fallen back to sleep. I would say we are getting there! Maybe the new baby won't want a pacifier, so I won't have to break another child's heart when I take it away, but I know in the girl's lives there will be lots of heart break, and at least this one won't be remembered long.

Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day, mom, I have Pink Eye!!!
Her eye already looks much better in this picture than it looked when she woke up this morning.

I have been blessed with a child that has not been sick very often, however this morning (Mother;s Day) I was in the shower and Chris came in holding Joselyn and said he had something he wanted me to see. The sight I then laid my eyes on was a happy smiling little girl with goo (for lack of better words) all crusted into her left eye. Chris cleaned it all out and I took a closer look, to see her eye swollen red, and again gooey. Yes, it is definitely pink eye, so no church for the girls today. I wouldn't change being a mom for the world, even on Sunday pink eye mornings!!

A stormy day, and life of many!

Not having physical power all makes me look to the power Creator!

Joselyn's face after the bite of Ice Cream

Joselyn eating Blanchie Wanchie Ice Cream!

Playing in the water puddle after the storm

Happy Mother's Day!

Every year we have a Mother's Day dinner at Stephanie's house, this year was a bit interesting. We had a storm that day that left us with no power, and children with lots of energy! I am very thankful for many things this mother's Day. First of all I am thankful for my mother! She has always been a supporter of myself and my growing family. I have a very dear friend who is thankful on mother's day, but no longer gets to celebrate this day with her own mother. Her mother passed on to be with the Lord over ten years ago. I can only imagine how hard this day is for her.

I am more than thankful for life of my daughter, and child being formed in my womb! My God has so richly blessed me, but I can very clearly remember a time not that long ago when I was childless. Every year my heart broke more and more of the love I felt I was never given the chance to share. I have another dear friend who has spent all her life longing for God to open her womb, and yet he has chose not to. My heart breaks for her on this day, I never want to forget those five long years of a closed womb I myself experienced.

I recently met a woman who has been blessed with four children, but two of them were taken from her has babies, and went home to be with the Lord. This sorrow again I can imagine is deeply rooted in her soul and is thought about everyday.

The pain many women experience on Mother's Day is a pain like no other, and yet they are left to find a way to some how manage to put a smiling face on and pretend that it is all okay on this day of the year. I praise God for the hope and grace he has given. I will continually pray every Mother's Day that these such women have found that hope for it is all that got me through that period of time in my own life. Mother's Day is a much deserved day of respect to our own mothers, but I ask you to quietly remember others who are suffering beyond belief on this day, and respect their pain as well.

31 weeks, and Oh, so Emotional!

Anison's crib at least has clean sheets

Almost 32 weeks, I think this is the first picture I actually feel like I look pregnant in and not just fat.

31 weeks

I am almost thirty two weeks pregnant and so completely DONE! As I have said before I am not a good pregnant person. I can't seem to focus on anything lately, I did finally get the crib bedding washed and put in the crib, along with clothes for the first three months washed and hung in the closet, well that is until I ran out of hangers. No, the room is still not painted nor have we managed to gather all the furniture I want. I finally feel like I look pregnant and not just fat. On the down side I am having more contractions now than I ever felt having when I was in active labor with Joselyn, every small activity makes them kick in and it takes the rest of the day to get them to stop. The varicoses only seems to be getting worse and sleep is pretty much none existent. I am very blessed and am trying to give God the glory for knitting this child in my womb, but I feel like an ungrateful little brat that wants her "pre-pregnancy" body back (the one I have not seen since before Joselyn was born). It takes me literally all night to fall asleep and by four I am usually out but around six I wake up in tears from the pain radiating through my spine. I don't remember experiencing this pain when I was pregnant with Joselyn, but maybe I just chose to forget it. Anison seems to be a lot more active at this point than Joselyn Again I am really trying to fight for joy, and praise the Maker! was as well, but then again we really have only an estimated guess of when she is actually due. I am repulsed by food and only want to drink water or milk, two things I never normally want. So I am really wanting to hear, "you are a lot farther than we thought," at my check up on Monday.

Wild Ride

This is our old car, and you can see the nose of the van

God is so completely amazing ! We had been talking about the "need" for a minivan since around the time Joselyn was born. I have wanted a minivan since I was like sixteen, but now we actually have a use for one with a growing family in the works. When I became pregnant a second time we started to talk about actually going to go look at them, but then decided it just was not in the budget, and we would reconsider at the end of this year. Then the move hit and Chris' mom let us borrow her van for the week, let me just say Thank you Roberta for this huge convienince! So we set out in our quest to buy a new van. Weeks of online research and price comparissans then sent us out the door with a little better idea of what we wanted. Call me spoiled if you may, but I really wanted a van with two features, tinted windows, for all of those quick feedings on the road, and power sliding doors, for the lazy mom with two small children and a hand full of bags. We knew the minivan was our number one pic because a few months earlier some one let their car door slamm into my car and left a huge dent in the side . I decided I would never be able to keep up with holding doors open so our children would not do the same to some one else's car. Earlier in the week we had heard of an amazing deal on a van and waited til Thursday to go check it out, that deal ended up not really being for sale and we were already in town and decided to go look around else where. We ended up driving on to the lot of Ward's in Carbondale. As soon as we got near the building I spoted a van that looked like someone owned and was driving and thought how funny it would be if they were trading it in and we bought it. We then quickly drove back to the used car section and saw they had several vans, so Chris decided to go in. He came back out and told me they had a couple we might look at, so the salesman talked with us for a few minutes about what features we thought were important and he went to check his inventory. He came back and said the used vans they had at this time did not match our check list, but that some one was trading in a van as we spoke and the owners said we were more than welcome to take it for a test drive. So, that is the van we ended up buying, yes the one I saw as soon as we pulled onto the lot. We got a chance to meet the owners, who were an older couple who traded in their vans every couple of years to buy a new one. Let me just add we pulled on the lot at about 6:05pm, Joselyn's dinner time, and drove off the lot a little after 8pm, Joselyn's Bedtime, and she was a perfect angel the entire time we were there, dancing and keeping all the salesmen well entertained. We have never made a purchase this big and the next morning woke up in shock of what took place the night before! Chris listed my car for sale and by that afternoon it was sold! I can not in my life describe how perfect God is at giving his blessings at just the right time. So we add a new vehicle to our journey, and are trying to patiently await the arrival of our second child.