Thursday, September 17, 2015

Lily's 5th Birthday

Lily turns 5 today, and I could not be more proud of her. She is equal parts thinker and feeler - so smart and so kind, and she loves her Jesus.

Last Saturday we had a surprise birthday party for her. She had requested a Halloween themed party, because she is anything but ordinary. This is my child who will spend an hour discussing Ebola with me and looking up microscopic pictures of it online.

I did everything I could to make it what she wanted, but I had to deny one request. She has never watched X-Files, but Clay and I binge watch it on Netflix after she goes to bed, and she will run out when she hears the theme song and claim it's her favorite song and request that we play it at her party. I don't think anyone would have appreciated the X-Files theme song on constant loop for hours, so we had to do without.







I greeted everyone and hid them, while her daddy walked her over.





She had a lot of wonderful friends who showed up to surprise her.

All the kids came in dress up and we had a scavenger hunt to look for candy.



Clay grilled while the kids swam, then we had dirt worm cupcakes and Lily opened presents.








    


She has been counting down every day for the last month until the day she gets to turn 5. She was so excited this morning.


We love her so much and can't wait to see what this next year holds for her.






Friday, August 21, 2015

Penny's 2nd Birthday

Penny turned 2 yesterday. I started the day in Atlanta and flew home in the morning. I was sad not to get to be there to wake her up, but Clay called me from the car. She said "MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY", and I said, "Yes, Penny?" and she said "CANDY BIRTHDAY!!! I guess Clay let her start the day with a dose of candy.

I picked up her cake when I was in town, and then I went to pick up her and Lily from school after their nap time. She was very happy with her puppy cake and kept sticking out her tongue to imitate it. I got to spend a few hours with them before we ran to the store to get candles and a balloon. She had requested yellow balloons.




We picked up Clay from work and went straight to Texas for dinner, because the girls love to do the birthday saddle. 








The wait staff was really sweet awesome with both kids.





She ended the night FaceTiming with Nana and Papa.
It was a really great family birthday.





Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Binder Clips

Several months ago, Clay handed me 4 binder clips attached to each other in different sizes. He said, "It's our family in binder clips." It was so sweet - I saved them on my desk.

When I found out I was pregnant several weeks ago, that was on of the first things I thought about, and I wanted to use it to tell Clay.

I was leaving town for a meeting a few hours away that morning, but I swung by his office in my rental car and asked him to run out to see me off.


These are the clips I put together in a box for him.



Here he is saying, "oh, you kept them" and hasn't realized what is happening yet.


This is after I told him, "It's our family. In binder clips." That's when he looked harder and saw the addition.

It's funny - after doing this a couple times already, you'd think he'd be over the surprise, but he still had a hard time believing it. I guess neither of us expected it to happen so quickly.

I'm in that super tired beginning stage where I am always hungry or nauseous or somewhere in between. And usually when I do eat, I get turned off by whatever it is a few bites in.

The symphysis pubis dysfunction that I had with Penny is back. Or I guess I should say that it never went away. I've still had a lot of hip pain in the last two years, and it started to get worse as soon as I got pregnant. Now I'm in physical therapy twice a week because one hip is always higher than the other and each side of my pelvis is twisted in a different direction than the other. They are hoping to manage it so it doesn't get so bad this time.

Penny knows where the baby is if you ask her, but I'm sure she doesn't grasp the situation yet. Lily is SUPER excited.




She has decided that the baby is definitely a boy and that his name is John. She will look at pictures of what the baby looks like during whatever week I am in for long periods of time and talk about how cute and tiny the baby is. She is excited to teach Penny how to be a big sister.

Boy or girl? That is the question we hear most often. In the past, Clay and I  wanted all girls. We are to a place now where a boy would be exciting, so we can definitely say that either is fine with us. However, sometimes I still want all girls out of pure rebellion - everyone thinks I am trying for a boy.

We are so excited for another baby. Clay, in particular, has had baby fever for quite a while. This morning we had our first ultrasound:


The baby looked like a little teddy graham - so cute.
I'll most likely give birth on January 29th, since they are very strict about c-section dates.

After those first 5 years of struggling with infertility, we are so thankful every time God allows us to have a baby. I know I will never take it for granted.



Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
James 1:17