10 on 10

Snapshots from our day - October 10, 2017. 

Ava loves holding Ella.

Asher and Ella. 

Ella trying out her new swing. 

Playing Uno this morning. 

My niece had her 2nd birthday party today. This dear friend enjoyed his arms full of babies.

A whole bunch of crazy cousins!

Princess Ella is 3 weeks old today! Her sisters dressed her for the party.

Jacob had today off for fall break, so he got to read to the kids. 

Tired mama but enjoying baby snuggles. 

The frozen peas were used for an ice pack on a boo-boo and then doubled as a snack too. Haha

Reading before bed. 😍

Baby #6 is HERE!

Ella Joy was born September 19, at 3:45am - yes, she was exactly 43 weeks according to our original date and 42 weeks +2 days if we use the adjusted date from the ultrasound we had at 18 weeks. Either way, she just needed to be on the inside a little longer than normal and I'm thankful for midwives and a doctor who allowed that!

She weighed 6lbs 8oz and 19 3/4 inches long. 

She is precious and we are all in love with her!

10 on 10

August edition of 10 on 10. Posting late...again. haha, such is life right now. I figure though, that years down the road when I look back at this little blog, the date posted won't matter, it will be the memories that matter most.

Yummy, yummy cherries.

Always drawing and crafting.

This captures their personalities perfectly. 

Current read-aloud. There is some boy/girl stuff I skip over that I don't feel is age appropriate for my kids. 

Levi got new glasses to wear for 4 hours each day. He wears his other glasses the rest of the day.

Levi was so excited to get to push a little cart! 

More playing. We've had lots of inside play on the super hot days.

Craziness always happens at bedtime.

Lily captured this sunset - she shares my love for beautiful sunsets!

A blogging friend wrote this and I'm so excited to read it!

37 weeks with #6

I am so grateful for every week that this sweet baby has to grow and develop. It's been a good week. I've gotten several more projects marked off my list, quite a lot of food put in the freezer - mainly breakfast foods and snacks. I need to work on main dishes now. My mom came over and helped me and the girls assemble breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches, and hot meat and cheese sandwiches (Pioneer Woman recipe) for Jacob, who will be starting back teaching right around the time Baby Girl is born. I made the burritos before Ezra was born, and Jacob really liked grabbing them before leaving early each morning to teach. It's going to be a little trickier this time though, because we don't have a microwave anymore (zero space in our tiny kitchen). We'll have to be thinking ahead to get them out of the freezer and pop them in the toaster oven.

37 weeks

Jacob grilled this yummy food for supper one night. He has made so many of our meals this pregnancy since I've dealt with lots of nausea. 

I love looking back at my pregnancy pictures for all my babies. Here I am at 37 weeks with each one - top left to right: Lily, Levi, Asher - bottom left to right: Ava, Ezra, Baby Girl. 

Baby #6 update

We are on the homestretch of this pregnancy! Only 5ish more weeks to go! I will be honest and say that this has been a really hard pregnancy. Maybe not necessarily the pregnancy, but this has been a hard season of life, which in turn has made it a tougher pregnancy. 

With each pregnancy, I have realized more and more how important healing after birth is for me (and all mamas). It is hard for me to rest and let others do for me. I have always felt SO good after giving birth, the thought of being in bed (or on the couch) has been a pretty foreign concept for me. I have rested longer after each baby, but this time I plan to even more. The First Forty Days book was a gift from my sister-in-law and it's really good in showing how postpartum care is SO important for mamas - not just short term, but also long term. **Please note, I don't endorse everything in this book, but it's been a very helpful resource to me. It's one of those that you take the meat and spit out the bones.

I have been needing to eat a little snack in the evenings or I wake up in the middle of the night ravenously hungry. In the picture I'm having avocado pudding with 85% dark chocolate sprinkled on top. It might sound gross to you, like it did to Jacob (ha!), but I thought it was good. I have embraced my weirdness at this point in my life. LOL

35 weeks with Baby girl.

We don't have a name picked out. Honestly, we haven't even talked about names lately. We do know it will be a two syllable "E" name. haha!

There are a few things on our list of things we need to buy, but not too much. Jacob needs to go to our storage building and find the carseat, co-sleeper, and baby girl clothes. I still have some organizing/purging projects on my list, along with getting food in the freezer. 

I am feeling pretty well, although I usually start dragging by later afternoon if we've been outside much. The heat and humidity is no joke  when you are this far along pregnant. Baby girl is very wiggly. I had an ultrasound last week and she is finally in correct position for birth and the placenta previa I had at 20 weeks has resolved itself. Very thankful about that!

Hopefully I'll be able to do another update before Baby makes her appearance, but no promises. :)

10 on 10

Here are a few pictures from our July.

July has been a hard month for various reasons, but I'm thankful for God's promises and faithfulness that has sustained us. 

For about 2 weeks Lily was dealing with a weird health issue that resulted in doctors appointments, losing 4lbs, an ER visit, x-rays, and other tests. We praise the Lord for guiding us through this rough time and giving much grace and strength. Thankfully all is well and it turned out to be a food sensitivity causing the problem. She's been so much better after removing eggs from her diet and getting her tummy back in working order.

The three big kids had a 4 day art camp, so I got to spend extra time with these sweeties. It's SO hot and humid, most of the time we spent walking around stores to stay cool. 

We managed to spend about 20 minutes at a park before we were all melting.

Funny kids!

Reading together.

At an outdoor concert.

Ezra loves the splash pad!

New art supplies = non-stop creativity.

Yummy popsicles on a hot, hot day!

I love beautiful sunsets.

10 on 10 {weekend edition}

We had a busy weekend, so I didn't get 10 pictures on one day, so we'll just call this the weekend edition :)

Beautiful weather and I love this tree!

Picnic at the park.

Not the greatest picture, but my sweet daddy telling my kids stories about me when I was little.

28 weeks! How am I already in the 3rd trimester?!

I love these kiddos!

It took all my courage, but I managed to take our new van through the car wash! We barely fit, but thankfully we made it ok!

My youngest brother graduated from homeschool high school!

Lunch at 5 Guys with family.

We had a great time visiting with Uncle Joseph and Aunt Audrey!

We've been married 9 years!!