Christmas crafts.

We had lots of fun doing crafty stuff before Christmas. We made snowflakes. I thought the kids would be able to make little cuts with their scissors, but they didn't really "get it," so I made the snowflakes and they unfolded them. Lily and Levi just loved seeing how each flake was different.

One day we made cotton ball snowmen. It was so fun for the kids to glue on the cotton balls and then "decorate" them with scraps of felt.

(getting a picture of the finished product and everyone looking at the camera was pretty much impossible. everyone is just doing their own thing. ha!)

We made wreaths out of paper plates. My kids love doing anything with glue, so they were all about glueing decorations onto their wreaths. We hung them on their bedroom and the bathroom doors.

So I have a question for you mamas with littles. Do you keep all the crafty projects your children do or do you throw them away? I hate junk/clutter, but I love the little projects so I have myself a dilemma. Would love to hear what you do!

Starting the year out with a bang.

Last week we had a virus in the house. Tuesday through Thursday it made it's way to each person except our precious baby Ava. Praise God she was spared! I believe it was by all the prayers offered on her behalf, the gift of donated breastmilk from a dear friend, and the regular application of Thieves essential oil (that stuff is amazing!).

Thankfully it was not a stomach virus. It was more like fever, chills, aches and coughs. We are still getting over the cough, but are definitely nearly well! It is not fun to have three sick little ones (plus a baby) and mama and daddy sick too. Everyone mostly wanted to rest, and surprisingly the children were in such sweet moods. ha.

Levi had the lightest case, but he was so sweet to be quiet and read while the others rested.

Miss Ava was a happy little girl through it all. She is a ray of sunshine!

This was about all the smile sweet Lily could muster on her 4th birthday! Bless her heart! It stinks to be sick on your birthday. We had to cancel Lily and Levi's birthday party as well as miss my family's traditional New Years Day dinner. 

I've been feeling so behind and blah. I'm praying that this week will be the week of accomplishment and renewed vision for me. We still have junk from Christmas scattered around, but thankfully we did get the decorations down the day after Christmas, so I don't have to deal with that now.

Jacob was in the middle of putting a new tub surround in our main bathroom when he got sick, so that project was put on hold until today. I think he should be able to finish the painting tomorrow. Then hopefully he can finish up a few odds and ends in the sunroom before he starts back teaching next week. With a crazy schedule like his, we can really only work on house projects during summer break and Christmas break. I'm so excited about getting the bathroom done! It's a project that's needed to be done since we bought the house 5 years ago!

Lately.

(this picture is not meant to imply that Ava is an unhappy baby...it just goes well with what I'm about to say)

My days have been non-stop busy the last few weeks. We've had our ups and downs. Some days I've felt like the only thing I accomplished was keeping my children alive. I'm not joking. Some days I've felt so productive and like "wow, maybe I can do this!"

Um, yeah! So unfortunately most days have been rough. Add postpartum emotions to the normal craziness of having 4 children 3 and under and you've got a mama who basically becomes a puddle of tears over the smallest thing and feels like the ultimate mom failure when her sons have to sleep in their clothes because they have no clean jammies. 

I really don't think I've ever been more thankful that God gives those good days (good moments, good parts-of-days) sprinkled throughout the hard ones. I'm thankful that He gives grace and strength abundantly when I feel like I just. can't. do. it. 

Ava is a serious little girl.

These boys. Oh, these boys. Asher has started climbing out of his crib. He apparently is pretty good at it because he's never hurt himself, but it scares me to death! We are going to move him to the toddler bed and Levi to a twin bed as soon as we can get a twin mattress. 

The other night, Jacob was gone and I hurriedly put the older children to bed a little early because Ava needed to eat. Lily went straight to sleep but the boys were being loud and obviously not ready to go to sleep, so I told them they could come play quietly until I was done feeding Ava. They were pretty rambunctious (we had cleaned up everything off the floor, so you can see they did some mess-making) until I told them Daddy was on his way home. Then they jumped up on the couch with a book and read quietly together until he got home. Little stinkers! :)

Last week, Levi was being naughty and I sent him to his "time-out chair" in his room to wait for me to come talk to him. Well, when I went to go in his room, I found that he'd locked he and Asher in the room. I got the little stick key thing and tried to get the door open, but I couldn't. I started to panic. Jacob was about 40 minutes away teaching for the day. I could hear the boys up on their dresser so I told them to get down and play legos. Thankfully they obeyed! :) 

After trying unsuccessfully to get the door opened, I called Jacob's dad who works about a minute from our house. He was so sweet to drop what he was doing and come (after finding a few tools that he thought he might need). He was able to get the door open very quickly...using the "key"...then he taught me how to unlock the door. Ha! We found the boys playing legos sweetly. Notice the time out chair. LOL

An older sibling wanted to share. :)

Play dough!

Lily wanted to see how Ava would fit in her doll cradle :)

Most of this post was written last week. Praise God, this week has been a bit better. Levi had his final post-op appointment yesterday and the doctor is very pleased with how he has healed and how his eyes look! That is a huge blessing!

Nehemiah 8:10

For the JOY of the Lord is your strength.

Update on Levi.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers! Levi did so, so well today! He cried when they carried him away from us, but other than that, he was sweet and happy. Mama actually did better than expected too. ;-) 

We got to be with him before he woke up and he actually wasn't too upset when he started coming to. He whined a little bit, but didn't cry or scream! I'm so thankful! I used some essential oils on him before surgery, and I think that they really helped him. The nurses were expecting him to be really upset when he woke up because they said he went to sleep very easily and they said that normally if a child goes to sleep easily, they wake up very upset. We were so thankful! Essential oils ROCK by the way! :)

We were able to leave about 45 minutes after he woke up. He slept all the way home and then rested on the couch. I forgot to take his sunglasses, so he wore mine home. ha!

Funny story: Jacob and I definitely left an impression at the surgery center today. During the surgery, Jacob spilled a nearly full cup of coffee on the floor in the waiting room. I made a large mess right in the main walkway! So embarrassing. Then when we were getting ready to leave, I used the bathroom and the toilet overflowed all. over. the. place. I just flushed it and water started pouring everywhere. Incredibly embarrassing! Ha!

He rested some this afternoon, but was able to eat and play like normal. The doctor and nurses warned us that using the eye wash and eye drops would probably traumatic for him (and us), but he has been such a trooper! He just lets us do the wash and drops with no trouble at all! We are so proud of him!

The Lord has answered so many prayers today! We are so very thankful!

Eye surgery.

Our sweet Levi is having eye surgery early tomorrow (Thursday) morning. The doctor will be loosening a muscle and tightening a muscle in each eye. He will be asleep about one hour. We are praying that everything will go smoothly and that there will be no complications.

Mama is having a particularly hard time. Postpartum emotions on top of your child having surgery isn't a good combination. I'm a soggy mess. 

We would appreciate your prayers. Thank you!

Ava's birth story.

Sunday, November 10, 4 days overdue with baby girl. 

I woke up and weighed myself first thing. I had lost 2lbs. For some reason I always lose 2lbs right before giving birth. My first thought was, "hmm, I wonder if we'll have a baby today?!" I didn't really think anymore about it as we got ready for church, but then I started losing my mucous plug and although I didn't get super excited, because I've lost my mucous plug several days before labor ever started, I again thought, "maybe today will be the day after all!" 

We went to church and had dinner with Jacob's family. I had some contractions, but none that were any different from what I'd been having regularly for weeks. We came home and got the kids down for naps. Jacob and I lay down too, but I couldn't sleep because I just felt like I needed to be doing something. I got up and did some laundry, emptied and re-loaded the dishwasher, and made muffins. I had a couple "different" contractions, and I texted a couple friends that maybe we'd have a baby today or tomorrow. At 4:01 I had a contraction that got my attention, but I didn't have to stop and breathe through it, so I still wasn't convinced that labor was starting. 

Right around 4:20, I had one that made me stop, focus, and breathe. I went and woke Jacob up and told him that I thought I was in labor and we'd need to head to the birth clinic sometime that evening. I was still hanging on to the hope that labor would hold off until after we put the kids to bed...so we could leave and they wouldn't even know. I had another more intense contraction and I told Jacob he'd better call his mom to come so she'd be here to take care of the kids when we needed to leave. 

We hurried around gathering up our last few things to take and getting stuff ready for the kids. I finally accepted the fact that I really was in labor and we were going to need to get going so we didn't have the baby in the car. When Jacob's mom arrived we quickly told her and the kids goodbye (I cried a little and Asher was calling for me as we waved goodbye). I hadn't eaten anything since dinner, so Jacob ran back in and got me a muffin and a bottle of water. We finally left the house at 5:08. As we were pulling out of the driveway I told Jacob, that he didn't have to drive fast, I thought we had plenty of time...that was before I had any contractions while sitting in the car. Oh, those are not fun! After I breathed and groaned through one, I said, "uh, yeah, you do need to drive fast!" ha!

The whole drive, my contractions were about 6-7 minutes apart. They grew in intensity and I was feeling the baby move down with each one. I had a super hard one (where I thought my water was going to break) while passing the exit to the hospital and I debated telling Jacob to just head there because I didn't think we would make it another 25 minutes. I just told him to hurry and he put on the flashers and for sure hurried! 

Once we got to the birth clinic (we made it in record time!), it seemed like my contractions slowed down, but they didn't, I was just busy talking with the midwives. I sat/bounced/swayed on the birth ball (my favorite way to labor) and leaned over on the bed and groaned and silently quoted my labor/birth verse - Isaiah 41:10 through contractions. I was feeling sick to my stomach, but I never threw up. I also got the shakes, which I always do around transition.

Jacob was amazing. Through all the contractions, he sat behind me and rubbed/put pressure on my low back and hips. My mom and sister arrived at some point and they were a big encouragement to me. I was still talking and listening to the conversation between contractions, but I really appreciated how everyone got quiet when a contraction started. I have always prayed that I wouldn't get ugly toward my husband, family, or midwives when I'm laboring, and it was just nice that they were considerate and I didn't have to ask them to be quiet! 

After a little while, I got in the zone and was staying focused even between contractions. Then I had a few hard, super long contractions and the midwife suggested I should get up on the bed and let her check me (around 7:45, I think). The most comfortable position was lying on my side (which I have never done during birth before). When she checked me I was 10cm and +3 station. I was feeling ready to push, and just then my water broke. 

I pushed through two or three contractions and the midwife said that she could see about half an inch to an inch of the baby's head. I was like (thinking to myself), "man, nobody's got time for that, let's get this baby out!" At the next contraction, I pushed (several times) with all my might and Ava Mae was born at 8:04! I obviously didn't push the whole time with all my might and shoot her out - she was actually born very easily and I had no tearing or even bruising. Ava was crying before she was even completely delivered and she was a beautiful pink! She was my first baby not to have the cord around it's neck. 

After she was born I just lay there with my eyes closed. I was so thrilled that birth was over, but I was almost scared to look at Ava because of how blue Asher was when he was born with the cord around his neck and shoulder. Myra kept telling me to open my eyes and look at my beautiful daughter. It was such a surreal time!

I am so thankful for my wonderful support team and for God's sufficient strength and presence with me.

Isaiah 41:10

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

She's here!!

Ava Mae

Born at 8:04 pm on November 10

7lbs and 21in long

We are thrilled to be home with all our babes!