Our Summer...

We'll miss popsicle eating...

and grass pickin'...

...and trip going... this is the "Harmony House B&B"...one of our favorites! Joe & I went on an awesome overnight here on July 27th for our 6 YEAR anniversary! Below is a picture of us on our "romantic getaway" and a little Abigail head is there too :) She did great and even got to sleep in her own room.

Where did the summer go? Summer is my favorite season of all. Don't even get me started on it...the warm weather, the pool, the beach, no school (I'm not sure why this matters to me now, but it still makes me happy :), lemonade, sunshine, vacations, etc. We had a wonderfully blessed summer for sure. We did have two big beach trips, but besides that, we didn't do much besides going to the pool and enjoying our family, friends and two little girlies.  I realize most people don't care what we did weeks ago, but this blog is also a helpful way for me to look back & remember what we did :) So, with that said, here are a few more everyday memorie's from our summer...

We enjoyed LOTS of pool time- and almost every Saturday with Kenni 

We also enjoyed taking little buddies to the pool too. All three of the girls had matching swim suites! Alathea, Kathryn & Abigail are all exactly 1 year apart...and once baby swan #2 arrives, there will be four of them almost exactly 1 year apart!

We spent a lot of time with Grammy at the pool too! Alathea was beyond thrilled to discover she could stand by herself in the shallow end of the pool!! She kept saying "look at me!" to anyone and everyone at the pool! She also went of the DIVING BOARD! It scared me a bit, but she loved it!

Below is some extra special sister squeeze!

There were many times it was just me & the girls going swimming. I learned how to take a baby & toddler by myself. Usually they were both in floats within arms reach, but when Alathea wanted to swim, Abi got this lovely view (above) from her Bumbo. She was such a good sport.

My Sister Julie came in town in July to watch the girls for our anniversary trip and CGL Retreat. She's pretty much awesome and the best sister/aunt 

Ju-Ju on earth. 

Above is the girls in our backyard pool. Its not much more than a puddle, but they love it. Alathea especially loves going down her slide into it head first.

And...this really deserves a post of its own, but our running threesome became a running twosome...as Jenny had to finally stop running with us. I knew this was coming as soon as I heard about her going on the Mooresville church plant, but that doesn't make it any easier. Jenny has been a HUGE part of my life since I moved here 6 years ago and we started running 3x a week together. Three times a week for six years...that is a lot of time together! I was so blessed! I miss her much!

My Baby

My Baby is 7 Months old now. Why can't she just stay little? I love little teeny snuggley newborns. But fortunately I also LOVE the baby stage. Abigail is such a delight. She's taken off in crawling across the room and around the house. It was startling the first few times I'd find her in a completely different room than the one I had left her in just moments before! She's been LAUGHING, like belly-laughing, so much lately. That certainly melts my heart. She now follows big sister everywhere. It used to be just with her eyes, but now also with her body. Its been fun watching the sister-friendship grow as she's gotten older. 

Some things I love about my Abigail: Her toothless smile and belly-laughs; her incredibly happy face every time she wakes up from a nap; how she claps her hands and her whole body jumps up and down when she's excited; how she sucks on her lower lip; her peach-fuzz little head; her chubby, kissable, squeezable cheeks; her big baby blues; how she'll follow Alathea around the house; the way she lights up when Daddy is home; her sunny and content disposition; her dimpled fingers; how she still loves snuggles and hugs and being held by Momma...I really love that one. She's still my baby girl.

Fountains

I must admit that I am soaking up every last bit of summer that is left! I've also been pondering all the memories that God has blessed us with these past three months...one of which is the many, many fun times I had with Joe & the girls at the Birkdale Fountains. We made it a regular family date to spend an hour plus just playing with Alathea in the fountains. At the beginning of the season she was a mere "distant admirer" of them, barely getting her feet wet. And then today she finally ran through the middle! She has to work up her courage over the entire season :). 

I have also made it a "tradition" to bring the girls up to the fountains every time Joe has been out of town this summer...for some extra special mommy-girlies time to keep us happy while Daddy's gone. We also made it a "tradition" to get the $1.99 kids ice cream at Cold Stone once we are done. Its a very happy ending to a fun family time. More on that later...I'm thinking of doing the next few posts on "things I loved about summer"....just one more way to keep the season alive a bit longer!

6 months with my girlies

I came across a journal entry (from my prayer journal) this week that I wrote almost exactly 4 months ago. There weren't a whole lot of entries back then, so I think this one pretty much sums up how I was doing:

"Dear Lord,

'MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU,

FOR MY POWER IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS'

2 Cor. 12:9

Help me to believe this. Thank you for how incredibly weak I feel. Like I cannot make it a few minutes, let alone hours or days without you God. 'I need thee every hour'. I need you more than ever. How humbled I am that a toddler and a newborn bring me to my knees every hour- but Oh how I need it! You know exactly what I need! Give me abundant grace, O God! Amen".

Wow, I so clearly remember what a difficult transition it was for me to go from one to two children. And it was so humbling- I kept thinking, "this shouldn't be this hard", but I think the Lord was after my self-sufficiantcy and pride in it all.

Now that Abigail is 6 months old, I am amazed at how things sorta flow again. Not that each day doesn't bring challenges, but I'm not in tears every day wondering how I will make it through the day. Actually the past three months have been full of way, way more smiles than tears. I think some of the "growing pains" have passed. I am so grateful that the Lord has allowed my ever so small capacity to grow a little bigger- but only with His help. And I am especially grateful for that feeling of desperation- what a blessed place to be. It is so easy in the typical day to day life to think I can manage life just fine on my own. I hope through these past 6 months I have learned that I can't do things on my own- I need Gods strength in everything, every minute of every day. What a valuable lesson to learn.

Its amazing that the Lord uses these two little cutie's to reveal how desperately I need Him!

Sister Love

I must say that I have been blessed with two girls who adore each other. They get along better than I ever imagined at this age. Abigail lights up for Alathea like no other and Alathea is the sweetest big sister in the world...at least most of the time. Every once in a while some switch goes off in Alathea's head and she turns on Abigail, which usually is Alathea pushing her over or stepping on her head or something like that. So I am always on the lookout for sweet, doting big sister to turn in a second. 

Yesterday afternoon we were having some lovely play time the three of us and out of the corner of my eye I saw Alathea standing on our step stool peering at Abigail,  growling and waving her hands in the air (it was quite the site to behold), saying "Gonna get you Abi!". I said, "Alathea, please be kind to your sister",  to which she replied, "No, no, mommy, Yay-yay dinosaw, Abi baby horsey. Yay-yay eat Abi!" and she went back to the growling. This was one of those times I thought "do I laugh or address this issue", well, I couldn't stop laughing- where did she come up with that? I didn't think she even knew what a dinosaur was. So much for the sweet big sister! At least she is most of the time.

My Sunshine on a cloudy day

Being a kid is so fun. I think half of why I love being a Mom so much is because I get to do all the fun kid things again with the girls. Especially with Alathea. She's in such a fun stage. God knew what he was doing combining the "training twos" with a budding, funny personality. 

Today while Abigail was napping Alathea and I got to play outside in the rain for an hour! She's been asking every day this week to use her umbrella (from Miss Hanna) & rain boots (from Uncle Kenni) she got for her birthday way back in February.   We had the greatest time.  The funniest thing is that I had to teach her to splash in puddles. Isn't that normally something kids do instinctively? Anyways, we had a blast and I laughed so hard! I'm loving my girlies :) 

Here was Alathea's initial reaction to the puddles! Oh, my!! I can't believe I am having to teach my kid how to get messy! What a girly girl :)

Two Years

Today at 8:06pm marks the 2 year anniversary of Mom's life in paradise. While her children are mourning the loss of our Mom, our best friend, our Hero, our Mentor...she is face to face with her Savior. Mom loved the Lord with all of her heart, soul, mind & strength. Her faith was put to the test during her horrible sickness & death. You can't fake it when you are suffering- Mom's faith was rock solid- and was even more purified through her suffering. I miss her more every month that goes by- I wish I could ask her thoughts on training a toddler and loving two children at once. I wish I could hear her sing her homemade lullaby "Close your eyes & go to sleep"... her voice is the most precious thing. I wish I could hear her laugh again. I wish I could see her & dad holding hands like they always did- best friends and loving life together. I wish Julie had a Mom at her high school graduation and to help her walk through her courtship. I wish Rocky had a Mom to tell him she was proud of him and to care about the little things in his life.  I wish we could have our huge family Christmas and Thanksgiving and birthday parties. I wish Mom was there to counsel me on difficult days and point my gaze to the Lord like she always did. I wish I could see her joy in holding her much anticipated granddaughter once again. Six months as a Nana just seemed too short. 

But, That is why I thank the Lord that we do not grieve without hope. His ways are perfectly good, perfectly sovereign, perfectly wise. He knows what is best for His children. In my flesh I may think having my Mom with me now is best- I can argue that for hours- but that is not true. 

For Gods ways are higher than my ways and I can trust him completely. And- this life is a mere breath. I must fight every day to keep an eternal perspective. One day death & tears & pain & sadness will be no more. Praise the Lord O my soul! What happy news!! Thank you Lord that I can rejoice in you. Thank you that because of what you accomplished on the Cross we can have hope. What a thing to rejoice in.

Redemption was Mom's anthem. Her life was bursting with Joy no matter the circumstances because all that matter was Salvation. Nothing- no sickness, sorrow, death- could take that away. Her Joy was amazing. Mom's absolute favorite song was "I will glory in my Redeemer". It was her life song. She lived it out. I can only imagine her singing this 

before the Lords throne

 this very moment:

"I will glory in my Redeemer

Whose priceless blood has ransomed me

Mine was the sin that drove the bitter nails

And hung him on that judgement tree

I will Glory in my Redeemer

Who crushed the power of sin and death

My only Savior before the Holy Judge

The Lamb who is my Righteousnes

I will glory in my Redeemer 

My life he bought, my love he owns

I have no longings for another

I'm satisfied in Him alone

I will glory in my Redeemer

His faithfulness my standing place

Though foes are mighty and rush upon me

My feet are firm, held by His grace

My feet are firm help by His grace 

I will Glory in my Redeemer

Who carries me on eagle's wings

He crowns my life with lovingkindness

His truimph song I'll ever sing

I will glory in my Redeemer

Who waits for me at gates of gold

And when He calls me it will be paradise

 His face forever to behold

His face forever to behold

His face forever to behold

His face forever to behold."

Miss you, Mom.

My Happy Girl...

She makes me melt!!

A few pictures of my very Happy Girl!!

Thought I would start this post off on a lighter note since my last was so heavy. Not much happier than a smiley little cutie pie!

With that said, THANK YOU to each and everyone of you who have been praying for me & my family this week! I cannot even begin to tell you how the Lord has met me...with peace in my soul, the revelation of sin in my heart, faith for the future and even in little practical ways. I know your prayers were a huge part of that. Thank you, thank you.

Also, an update on Alathea's eye. I went to my pediatrician and an eye doctor with Alathea on Wednesday morning. It seems that the verdict still stands...it was a huge stye that got infected. I was assured it is healing OK and that in no way her vision is being effected. That was reassuring. Thanks for praying for that too!

Here are a few pictures of life around here...

Working on baby food again...seems to like peas!

This is our every day morning routine...from 9-9:45am we have "play time"- its my favorite time of the day! Me & the girlies lay on Abi's blanket and play with her toys. Notice we are still in PJ's...getting dressed comes next :)

 

Alathea is rediscovering the excersaucer of her babyhood. She ate breakfast in it this morning.

Lots of Grammy love.

And special cousin time. My girls just LOVE seeing their cousins- Andrew & Caleb.

Mom

I miss this.

Just wanted to ask for you all to pray for me & my siblings. This past week has been unusually difficult for us in regards to missing Mom...lots of crying, dreams about Mom, missing her terribly, etc. The 21st marks the 2 year anniversary of her death. I think maybe with that on the horizon it has intensified the pain of her loss. I haven't felt this sad in a long, long time. At first I thought I was crazy- all this crying out of the blue- but Rocky & Julie said the exact same thing. We sure miss Mom. Really bad. Thankfully we don't grieve without hope. This life is just a breath and we'll be joining Mom in the Lords presence. But in the mean time, please keep us in your prayers. I want to honor the Lord in my grieving. 

On the move...

Our little Abi girl has reached a big milestone...she's moving now! This past week she started scooting. The funniest thing is she's scooting backwards! She extends her arms out, which pushes her backwards. So when she wants to get to some toys, she actually moves away from them. This shows how mild mannered she is- she doesn't cry, she just keeps trying (and moving farther and father away :). I often find her underneath our couch, having scooted across the entire room. 

By the time she turned six months old, Alathea was on all fours crawling across the room. That was WAY too early for me :). I'm grateful Abigail isn't crawling yet, although she rocks on all fours quite a bit.  I have to admit I am a little sad that Abi's started scooting. It's a sign she is growing up way too fast. I kept telling her to stop and just lay there like a little baby, but Joe told me to stop and be happy about this big milestone :)