Catching Up: The Nutcracker

I'm going to be doing a few catch up posts from Christmas. I want to have the pictures and memories saved here, so bear with me :)

Lily got to go to The Nutcracker performance with Grammie and Aunt Elizabeth again this year (I think it's going to be a yearly tradition - at least Lily hopes so!). 

It was a school performance so there weren't designated seats, but Lily was really happy that they got to sit on the front row! 

Lily with Jacob playing in the orchestra pit. During the intermission, Jacob took Lily down to the pit to see what it was like. She thought that was pretty neat! One of the other musicians commented to Jacob after the performance about how mesmerized Lily was the whole time - sitting on the edge of her seat watching every move. :)

Sweet girl and her Daddy!

Happy Birthday, Lily!

Miss Lily is 5!! She is sweet. She is stubborn. She loves to craft. She wants to be an artist when she grows up. She loves to help cook and clean. She says exactly what she thinks. ha. She is a little mama to Ava. She loves learning about Jesus. She loves to sing. She loves dress up. She has a strong will that I know the Lord is going to use in great ways someday!

Lily requested "protein" for breakfast - fried eggs with cheese, bacon, and toast. She is a crazy girl! We had a family party for her and Levi on Lily's actual birthday. I will post those pictures soon...hopefully! 

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!

Sweet Babes.

Right now Lily is really into wearing coats, tights, and long-sleeved anything. Yes, with this heat and humidity! Crazy girl! The other day she was running around in her coat and I found her sweetly playing with Asher. It was the most precious thing to see her hugging him and talking quietly to him. She is such a good big sister. Of course, like any 2 1/2 year old, she has her moments of not being so nice to her little brothers, but we try to focus on the good times and use the bad times as training ground.

My Girl.

Just want to share a few things about Lily that I don't want to forget.

Lily is growing up way too fast. Sometimes I feel guilty that she's had to grow up faster because she has two little brothers. I do my best to not have unreasonable expectations and to remember that she's only 2 and practically still a baby herself. 

She is goofy.

She loves to help me bake, but always has to lick the beaters or bowl.

When we tell her to smile for a picture she does this cheesy grin. 

She loves helping with Asher...but she can go from being gentle and kind to being too rough in a matter of a second or two. I have to constantly be watching.

Reading is by far her favorite thing to do.

She does well saying her letters and numbers (1-20). 

She's memorized Ephesians 6:1, Genesis 1:1, and part of Psalm 23. 

She's really gotten into picking out her own clothes and shoes. 

She is finally able to sleep better after the awful cockroach experience. She will still wake up scared sometimes in the middle of the night but she'll go right back to sleep when we rock her.

I think she's growing. Lately she is always hungry. 

She still eats pretty much everything we put in front of her...except spicy food.

She is compassionate. 

She is quick to ask for forgiveness when she's done wrong.

It seems like she is always singing. She was thrilled to get a cd player for her room! Thank you, Sarah!!

She will make anything into a musical instrument to play while she sings.

Her favorite song right now is "Standing on the Promises." We picked it for her during the singspiration at church a few weeks ago - in between two of the stanzas, she hollered out "louder!' We couldn't help but crack up! That's what she always says in the van when we are listening to music.

She is very much into imaginative play and dress-up. She will occupy herself for the longest time playing "momma" with her baby dolls, or "walking in the forrest" like Goldilocks or Little Red Riding Hood (by walking across the pillows at the head of our bed). 

Lily can be very stubborn and strong-willed at times. We pray for guidance and grace as we seek to teach her to use those qualities for God's glory.

We thank the Lord everyday for this sweet girl!

Whirlwind trip

My brother, Jer, graduated from a university in South Carolina on Friday. We drove up on Thursday and came home late Friday night. Normally it's a 5 1/2 - 6 hour trip, but with three little ones it took us a good bit longer. We took our time and stopped several times so Lily and Levi could run around and stretch their legs.

The kids actually did really well on the drive! I was so thankful for that!

We stopped at McAllister's Deli for lunch on Thursday.

On Thursday afternoon we visited with some family.

Jer, Mom, and Asher.

We met all the rest of my family, a bunch of Jer's college friends, and some of his girlfriend's family at 5 Guys for supper. Then we headed to the bowling lanes.

It was Lily's first time to bowl. She liked it for her first two turns then she accidentally went too far down the lane and slipped and fell hard on her bottom. After that she was done. She took off her shoes and was ready to leave. 

I was thankful to have Myra and Mom's help with the kids. Let's just say, it's not the brightest idea to take tired little ones who have been riding in the car all day to a {ahem} smoke-filled, creepy-people filled place. Yep, it was...interesting.

Jacob finished bowling one game, then we headed back to our hotel. The kids slept pretty well, it just took awhile to get them to sleep.

Friday morning I took the kids over to a friend's house to visit with her and another friend who was in town. Between the three of us, we had 6 kids under the age of three! Fun and crazy for sure! Of course I forgot to take any pictures.

During the graduation ceremony we visited some more friends...and of course, no pictures.

After graduation, we met up with my family and Jer to get pictures. Of course, I didn't take any pictures. My hands were full of tired, out of routine, grumpy children. Oh well.

I am super proud of Jer though! He got the top academic honors and he got chosen to give a testimony during the ceremony! So thankful for the talents God has blessed him with!

We started the trip home around 5pm and stopped near Atlanta for supper. Lily and Levi enjoyed splitting a Chick-Fil-A kid's meal and playing on the indoor playground. 

We were so thankful to finally make it home late that night! Thankfully all the kids stayed asleep while we transferred them from their carseats to their beds! Jacob and I unloaded a few necessary things and then we crashed into bed completely worn out. 

What a trip! Completely exhausting, but totally worth the memories that were made! :-)

Our Week In Pictures

This has been a long week. Jacob had rehearsals until late every single night, we didn't get a whole lot of sleep all week, and it was tiring doing the "nightly routine" by myself all week...but we made it through! I'm looking forward to an "at home" date night on Monday night! It's been weeks since Jacob's had a free night just to be together at home. 

 Asher is starting to like sitting in the nap nanny looking around.

 I just love when Lily and Levi play happily together! They are at the age where they still need alot of guidance to help them play sweetly together, but they are getting better!

 Storytime while waiting for breakfast.

 These two love to help in the kitchen! They brought plastic play food and pots into the kitchen to play.

 Asher is smiling huge grins these days, but I have get to catch it on the camera. He's usually moving his arms wildly, so the pictures are blurry.

 Levi learning to be gentle.

 Sweet brothers.

 Jacob is working on building a water table and a sand table for the kids, but they have enjoyed using the tubs for boats for now. I love how they are both playing with dolls!

 Asher spent a lot of time in his carseat this week. We had several appointments, errands, and trips out to my parents. One appointment was with the midwife for our 6 week checkup. Asher has gained about 2lbs (give or take a few ounces...he had his clothes on and he'd just had a 5 oz bottle). I'm so happy he's doing great!

I love walking in the living room and finding my sweet girl sitting on the couch reading. 

Makes me so happy!