Pawpaw.

We have been spending all the time we can over at Pawpaw's home. He is very close to the end of his journey here on earth. Although this is a very, very difficult time, it is also a precious time because of the hope we have in Christ.

Lots of family and friends have been gathered around him for the last 4-5 days. I always start crying when I pull up to the house because there are usually 15-20 cars lining the street around his house - that is love.

The picture above was taken last week when he was still able to get out of bed. He is now unresponsive and peacefully sleeping.

Please keep all the family in your prayers these next few days. Thank you!

Midweek Randoms

Monday was a really rough day at our house. All the kids were cranky and mama's patience wore thin many, many times throughout the day. I think the main reason for the crankiness was the busy weekend and not getting enough sleep. All three kids were up by 7:00 Monday morning...and they normally sleep til around 8 or 8:30. I think that day will go down in the books as my hardest day being a mother so far. I'm thankful for God's sufficient grace! I can't tell you the number of times I cried and prayed (out loud). 

Praise the Lord, Tuesday was a much better day! 

Jacob has so much going on this week - gone early in the morning and late at night.

It is so, so weird not being pregnant right now! This is the first Fall and Winter I haven't been pregnant in three years. As weird as it may sound, I kind of miss it! That being said, I can't imagine being pregnant with an almost 3 year old, almost 2 year old, and a 7 month old! Wow!

Asher started saying Da-Da on Monday. :)

Levi's favorite song right now is Amazing Grace. When I was rocking him before his nap yesterday, he asked for "Grace" and then after we would sing it he'd immediately say "again, again." 

Lily is getting to be so grown up. She is such a big helper to me and she cheerfully does her chores each day. I really need to make her a chore chart so she can mark off the chores when she gets them done.

After taking our babysitter home yesterday, we stopped by and visited Memaw and my parent's. Lily and Levi were so excited to go to the barn and "help" Papaw feed the animals. My dad is so sweet to give them little jobs to do so they feel like they are really helping. :)

Today we have errands to run and we are hoping to stop by and visit Jacob's Pawpaw. He loves to see the kids.

The verse that has been going through my mind all week is: Psalm 34:1 - I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Oh how I pray that this would be true in me!

Happy Wednesday!

Video: Breakfast at Our House

There is definitely no lack for entertainment at our house! :)

7 months.

What is Mr. Asher up to at 7 months old?

• Scooting and rolling everywhere, but no crawling yet.
• Drooling and drooling and drooling. Hopefully some teeth pop through before too long!
• Sitting pretty well.

• Chewing on everything! No, he doesn't suck his thumb, but he chews on it.
• Eating. This child seriously loves to eat! He takes 4 bottles a day as well as eating 3 meals and sometimes a snack before bed. He hasn't turned away any food yet. He just gobbles up whatever we offer!

• So far he's eaten - applesauce, pears, avocados, green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, egg yolks, pumpkin, squash, chicken, and banana. I'm attempting to keep him grain-free until he's at least a year old. I didn't do this with Lily or Levi, but from stuff I've read, it's best for their digestive system.

• Weighs 16lbs, wears size 3-6 and 6 month clothes, size 2 shoes, and size 3 diapers.
• Sleeps like a champ! Usually two 1 1/2-2 hour naps each day and 11-12 hours at night (straight through). 
• He's been sleeping in his crib in Levi's room for awhile now. He usually wakes up before Levi in the morning, so I sneak in and get him so Levi can snooze a little longer. Asher takes some of his naps in the co-sleeper still. It just depends on how the day is going.

Asher, we are so thankful for you! You are a sweet little man, and we love you!

Scattered.

Wow, how is it I haven't blogged since October 5th!?! We have been incredibly busy! I wish I could say that life is going to slow down a little, but I really don't see any slowing down until the middle of March. Yes, March! 

So this is just a run-down post of what we've been doing so I don't forget.

Last week we spent nearly the whole week preparing for a huge yard sale on Friday and Saturday. It was a fundraiser yard sale like we had back in May. All the proceeds are going to help build a mission house in Liberia. The sale was at our house so all week people were bringing donations. 

This is what one side of the living room looked like by Thursday night. The other side had just as much stuff. It was crazy! Myra and I were pretty much the people organizing and running the sale but our husbands and our Dad helped tremendously! 

Friday morning we got everything set out, had a few sales, then we had nearly an inch of rain fall in less than an hour! Myra, Daddy, and I were running around like drowned rats trying to get stuff out of the rain. Myra and Daddy called and rented a huge white tent for the remainder of the sale. The guys came and put it up in the pouring rain. So we spent the majority of the day Friday drying stuff off and throwing away stuff that got ruined.

Saturday was a much better day! We had a great sale and ended up making between $500 and $600!

While we were packing up all the remains of the sale, Lily, Levi, and my nephew, Ridley, were jumping on bubble wrap. All of the sudden, Lily fell to the ground and called me saying that she was hurt. I thought maybe Ridley had jumped on her foot (she was barefoot which isn't unusual). She didn't get back up so I went over and saw that she had a cluster of 3 staple-gun staples in her heel. Apparently she had jumped on the staples and they were super deep. :(

I ended up taking her to the ER to get them out. She was so, so brave! Barely any tears the whole time, and she fell asleep while we were waiting on our discharge papers! Jacob was gone to play a wedding and I am so thankful it happened when my family was still at my house, so they could watch the boys. Myra came with me until Jacob's mom got there. It was a blessing to have the support of everyone because I was kind of a mess.

Friday was Jacob's 30th birthday! I pretty much flopped on all the fun things I had planned to do for him. :( With preparing for the yard sale, I didn't have much time to do anything, but my debit card got hacked halfway through the week...so I had no way to get cash from the ATM or use my card to buy any gifts. 

The birthday cheesecake is store bought (thanks to my mom) because I couldn't buy the ingredients to make the homemade one I'd planned to make. The three candles take the place of the awesome 3 and 0 candles I've had for months...bought specifically for this occasion, but forgotten. Ugh! That's only the tip of the iceberg in the fail department.

We had supper with Jacob's family at his favorite mexican restaurant. Then we were able to pull off a surprise party afterwards! It was fun and he was definitely surprised!

I love this guy and I'm so thankful he's the Daddy of my babies!

Saturday night we visited with Jacob's Pawpaw for a little while. He was doing pretty well that night, but he's gone down hill really fast and has hardly eaten anything for several days. Please keep him and our family in your prayers if you think of it. 

Hope you all are doing well! I miss keeping up with you and hope to get the chance to again soon!

Snapshots.

happy girl.

little sweetie.

{yes, the L's "decorated" the front of the truck. ha!}

sleeping with "bird" that daddy slept with as a kid.

hangin' out with bessie - my in-law's dog.

yes, he fell asleep like this! haha.

Happy Weekend!

Midweek Randoms.

It rained Monday and part of Tuesday so we've been busy building couch cushion houses, playing play dough, playing hide and seek, and reading tons of books.

Levi has had a cough, but it seemed worse today. Not sure if it's allergies or something else. 

We have been buying locally grown apples by the peck. We've made the best fresh apple juice and applesauce! The other day I found Lily and Levi hiding snacking on apples. Little stinkers!

We had Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili for supper. It simmered in the crock pot all day and made the house smell soo good! Everyone loved it! It would be a great meatless meal too - the beans and sweet potatoes make it super filling.

I'm so proud of this guy! He's training to run a Ragnar Race (from Chattanooga to Nashville) in a few weeks! He's part of a 10 or 12 man team - it's like a relay race. I'm hoping to take the kids to Nashville to see them cross the finish line - Jacob's not the guy running at the end, but it'll still be cool to see them cross!

I love Eric Carle books just as much as my kids do! :)

I really need to get in the kitchen and clean up the dishes from supper.

Aunt K has been coming to visit and play with the kids a few hours each week. The kids just love it and I enjoy the adult conversation in the middle of the day!

It's so hard when two (or all three) of my kids need my attention at once. I think God should have given mama's more than two hands! :)

Lily is currently singing Mary Had A Little Lamb as she goes to sleep.

I love my family!

Weekend.

Thank you all for your kind comments on my last post. My burnt fingers are much better now. I pretty much don't have any fingerprints left, but that mostly happened with hot glue back when I was making lots of hairbows. 

We had a really good weekend. It was busy, as always, but the kids were just easy and fun and that was a blessing to me! Jacob is the head of one of the divisions for the State Youth Symphony. He spent all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon auditioning 30-40 kids for the symphony. 

On Saturday, the kids and I went grocery shopping, played around the house, and visited with my mom and sister.

On Sunday morning, Lily got up and helped me make pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. Mmm, they were so yummy! My sweet mom had snagged me a couple cans of pumpkin when she saw that there were only a few cans left and I wouldn't be shopping til the next day. 

You can see Mr. Asher wasn't too happy about Daddy giving him a mohawk for church. Ha! Poor baby was actually tired. Sundays are hard because Asher only gets maybe a 30 minute nap before we leave for church, and then he never falls back to sleep until his afternoon nap.

We enjoyed time with both sets of family on Sunday afternoon and evening. I'm so thankful for the good relationships we have with our families.

Today was a rainy day. I would've SO loved to stay home all day, but we had to run out to the butcher's and get 1/4 (we split it with Jacob's family so we didn't actually get the whole quarter) of a cow that we ordered. I'm so excited to have fresh beef!

Hope y'all had a great weekend!