Back Posting

I have a bad habit of starting a blog post, walking away, and not finishing it. So I posted a few extra today just how I left them however many months back. I want them to show up when I print our blog books, so that's why you might be getting weird posts in your feed. Can you tell AB is sleeping and EC is working on her school stuff? Off to get more things accomplished!

Baby Boy Lane

Last Friday was incredibly exciting for our little family! It was baby Lane's anatomy ultrasound at See Baby! It will be another week+ before I get to meet with the midwives at InTown, so I asked if they would let me go early for the anatomy ultrasound. After dealing with the craziness of switching OB offices, trying to transfer paper work, working out issues with billing, and making sure I was in the stack to get reviewed and accepted, I was kind of ecstatic to get the 5th call saying our ultrasound was scheduled! I hadn't seen or heard the heartbeat of our little one since 12 weeks and I was getting a little anxious.

I had been toying with the idea of doing a gender reveal party since before my miscarriage last March. My friend sent me the cutest blog post of one. So I asked Bo Thursday if he would be up for it and he thought it sounded fun. So I sent out a last minute email to our friends in town and it all took off from there! I knew we would do cupcakes, so all of our guests could open their own to find out the news. But I also thought having a "present" to open and doing a Christmas theme would be fun! So I asked my neighbor on Thursday afternoon if he could make 2 dozen cupcakes filled with red icing for a girl or green icing for a boy and he happily obliged! This was kind of a big deal because he has MS and I wouldn't be able to let him know the gender until just an hour or so before the party. I am VERY thankful he was up for it! For the present idea, I pulled out Bo's old "I'm the little brother" shirt and a pink dress. Then I found myself hoping the sonogram tech wouldn't think I was crazy and would help me with my requests.

Friday, I took both the girls to meet Bo in Atlanta at the perinatologist's office. I figured if either girl started going stir crazy, Bo could take them home in the van and I could follow in the car. When the called us back, all the ultrasound techs and nurses were talking about what beautiful blonde curls EC and AB have and how we make beautiful girls. So our sweet ultrasound tech asked us what we were hoping for this time. We both responded with "healthy" and meant it with our whole hearts. Even though we have two sweet, healthy girls, after the miscarriage we had a whole new appreciation for health. I asked the ultrasound tech if she would help us with a couple things for our gender reveal party and to please not let us see anything on the ultrasound. She thought it was too sweet and was excited to play along. Our tech was absolutely the best! She was so patient and helpful with the girls. When she started the utlrasound, she showed the girls the head. Immediately AB started saying, "baby, baby, baby" and continued for the next several minutes. The tech also pointed out the baby's legs and feet, which were well above his head! He did grab his right foot in his right hand after a bit and held it for the rest of the ultrasound. AB thought the ultrasound was really cool. EC was over it after about 10 minutes and wanted to play a game on daddy's phone.

Luckily our little guy was in the perfect position to show his gender :) The ultrasound tech had no hesitation about her findings and what to write down on the paper to give our neighbor (who would be making the cupcakes). She had to label the gender on the ultrasound, but only put in the first letter so we couldn't count keystrokes :) She thought of everything. She packed the blue shirt in the present box before we left. We had an extra bag with diapers in it for the dress (the diapers were in it so I wouldn't be able to tell by feeling what was in the bag.) I wanted to be surprised too! And she wrote down the gender for my neighbor, sealed it in an envelope, taped the envelope, and wrote on it so he would know if I had opened it on the way home ;)

It was such a cool experience! I feel like not knowing the gender gave us extra time to focus on the fact that our little one is healthy. It seriously brought all new meaning to the phrase to be filled with great joy, at least for me! We left the office excited about finding out the gender at the party and just incredibly grateful we have another healthy baby on the way!

The party turned out cool two! We had a house full of friends over for dinner and dessert. And at the end EC opened the present box to "reveal" the gender :) Bo said he was honestly shocked. I kind of had a feeling, but still knew not to trust it completely :) EC said she was disappointed, but on her own accord prayed for her brother that night. AB just wanted to eat cupcake!

Sorry these are blurry, I'm not sure why my iphone has been taking the worst pictures lately. It is much more sensitive since I got the lifeproof case. I may need to try out a different one. Anyway, we are all filled with joy and cannot wait to meet this little guy! Here's to hoping he looks like me and not like Bo ;) 

Canady

Soovie had a brilliant idea at 1AM this morning to leave a helpful message on our bathroom mirror. Too bad Soovie cannot spell. 

Yep, Bo had a good laugh before work this morning! I thought about just blogging this photo:

But that wouldn't be very realistic would it? And just while we are being honest, I totally had to clean that gross sink before I took this picture. And my girls have already gotten toothpaste all over it again. So it was clean for less than 10 hours, how about that? 

Yes, we are doing advent ornaments and we even got a little crafty with some, but I still haven't taken pictures. The only reason I get Soovie's picture is because he moves everyday :) One day I will recap the ornaments and our lessons for those who care! 

Another Christmas Tree

I know, another fabulous photo...not! :) I hope you don't mind my really terrible photos. I take them on manual mode, because I really don't like how they look when the flash is on. And unfortuately they are done at night, before the girls have a chance to find elf and move everything in the morning. I have every intention of editing the pictures a bit before posting, but who has time for that!

Today Soovie brought the girls the Christmas tree that we "forgot" in the attic. He "brought" this tree to us last year. Soovie even found some of the snow flakes he brought back from the North Pole last year to use at the top of the tree to make a star. EC is obsessed with a star being on top of the tree. I think it upsets her a little that I put a ribbon at the top of our big tree. I have considered buying a star for the top of this tree and Target has the cutest little tree skirts this year for $8. But neither are in the budget this month, so maybe if it goes on sale after Christmas I will splurge and let Soovie bring it next year :) Plus, I have a hard time spending money on something like a tree skirt, when I could make it so easily.

EC has been completely obsessed with any and all things Christmas this year. She is definitely our Christmas Nazi! Every day she asks if there is something new to decorate or if she can rearrange the ornaments on the Christmas tree, so you can bet this tree did not stay empty long! I think she gets this from me ;)

I am feeling better about the family stuff today. Just typing it out last night helped a ton. I was also able to spend an hour on the treadmill today, so that probably helped too!

If you have the time to comment, I could use some help on shower decoration craftiness!

Here are the finished paintings, what do you think?

I spray painted this big star for the center of this wreath (getting my money's worth out of the wreath, this is the third party it has been used at)! The wreath could use some tweaking and I really need something to cover up the old hot glue.

I also spray painted these stars silver after removing them from the string of lights. I am now thinking they may make a cute decoration for the fire place, but I would like to do something to incorporate Avery's name. I originally thought I would do a banner for the fireplace, but wouldn't the stars add a whole new dimension!  I also have a strand of star lights to use in the diningroom, if I can figure out how to plug them in without leaving the cord out as a tripping hazard.

I would love to do something like this above the food table, but I don't thing strings of small stars are going to happen. Maybe. I do have three pink pom poms to go above the table and I plan to make two silver.

How would you tweak this decor? Hoping I can get everything done before Sunday!!

On a Lighter Note, Here's Soovie!

Soovie had a big surprise this morning!

He brought the girls a new nativity scene! The girls are very into dolls and doll houses, so this seemed like the perfect way to focus them in on the story of Jesus. (Santa may have gotten it at an after Christmas sale last year...) EC keeps asking me who each doll is and what they did. Score! Although, some of the wise men must look a little feminin, because she keeps calling one of them a she.

I'll get busy posting about some of our advent crafts soon, but I will warn you that we have taken the easy route this year and are doing the printable ornaments. We may break wide on the weekends and do a crafty one, but right now I am focused on craftiness for Amy's baby shower and my mind can only take so much :)

Honesty, Forgiveness, Perception

I'll try not to be completely down for this entire post, but don't you just hate it when your best just doesn't seem good enough? Or when good intentions just end up making a big mess? That is how I have felt lately.

Not necessarily when it comes to Bo or the girls. I know Bo loves me no matter what craziness my hormones put him through and I am oh so incredibly grateful for that! Not that I am normally a basket case, but this pregnancy has been weird folks!

And I do feel like we are making progress with AB's behavior lately, even though it is hard and I do have to repeat myself  A LOT. She is definitely in the "does better with choices" stage. Her speech has taken off recently, so I know that is part of her(our) frustation and struggle. I'm blessed to have such a sweet, smart girl. She did overwhelm me a good bit last week, but I feel like all my praying about that this weekend is starting to pay off and I see a light at the end of the tunnel. A long, tiring tunnel, but not an endless tunnel ;)

Most of my frustration and feelings are associated with family in law issues. I tried to avoid drama/hurt feelings of one person and ended up causing a hard feelings with another one. I'm assuming all is better now(I cannot stand the thought of her not trusting me now), but it is just hard to tell how long people hold grudges or if one little thing will cause them to shut you out. Maybe I'm sharing too much, but that is kind of how I am... one big open book. I mean, you all have seen a picture of me right after giving natural childbirth in a pool of water. I don't think I can be more real than that!

Anyway, this little patch of drama has made me think about forgiveness and how people perceive me. Forgiveness was/is something I struggled with for so long. Up until Beth Moore's studies about James and David, I'm not sure I understood true forgiveness. It hit me how bad this was when I realized that my lack of forgiveness could keep me from having a deeply intimate relationship with God. And that only with his help, could I truly forgive not just get past.

I took quite a few things to heart from Beth's James study about forgiveness:
"Several years ago a dear friend told me something she felt God was asking her as she resisted reconciliation. 'Do you want to be right? Or do you want to have a relationship?'"
"Loving God and loving others does not equal hating ourselves...Imagine how mangled our bodies would be if we took care of them the same way we tend to our hearts."
"Our devotion to God and true religion is illustrated most poignantly on the pages of other lives. "
"Because we look up, we're compelled to look out. This is a fount from which blessing flows; 'Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.' Matt. 7:1-2"
"We need something bigger than justice. We need mercy - the kind of mercy that arches triumphantly over the seat of judgement like wings of golden cherubim over the mercy seat."
"Lord, shake us out of the slumber of our self-helplessness and awaken us to a mercy so wide that we rise to the light of the east while our transgressions set in the west. This is the mercy that breeds mercy. This is the love that loves others as itself. This is the law of the Great King."

And I called myself a Christian ;) I have to frequently remind myself that we are all in different places on our journeys and it is so wrong to judge another, even our Christian friends. But I won't get started on the whole judgement issue!

 Then there is how people perceive me. I try not to care. I know the only person I should be living for is God, but there have been those thoughts, "I wonder what she said to who about the situation and what they think about me, because of what she said? Did she make me sound like a horrible person? This person doesn't really know me and now they think what? I was only trying to avoid Christmas drama!" But I know those thoughts cannot be my focus. If someone wants to be upset with me, even after I have apologized for any misunderstanding, I have to let that be their problem. If they choose not to trust me, that is how it will have to be. If a person who doesn't know me chooses to think something about me that may not be true, I cannot change that. I can only live this life striving to do God's will and let him work out the rest. Maybe it is part of his plan. I know that letting go, is how I will find peace.

Soovie Brought a Treat

Thank you for the messages about how you handle Santa at your house/how you did Santa growing up! I definitely got some good ideas to try! 

Here was where Soovie spent the day today. He knows AB too well! Candy/sugar of any form is the way to her heart! The girls got a treat today for being sweet for their daddy this weekend. After dealing with sickness and growing pains last week, this momma was DONE. I haven't ever felt that ready for a weekend before in my life. I think my hormones are also going through another shift, because I just have not felt like myself. Coupled with the feelings of needing to nest/spring clean my entire house and the setting in of pregnancy insomnia, well that is enough to make any sane person feel overwhelmed!

Bo and the girls were very sweet today. They cleaned up the house a bit and bought me new cozy socks to enjoy during this cold season! Bo had picked out some Christmas socks when EC told him I needed the cozy (aka super soft) socks :) I had barely pulled in to the garage after our girls dinner tonight, when EC rushed out to tell me they bought me lots of surprises. "One surprise you can have tonight! New cozy socks!" So not only did I get to enjoy dinner out with the girls tonight to celebrate Amy's baby girl, but the girls had lots of quality time with their daddy this weekend while I got to do some crafting with my momma! Thanks hubs!