Beautiful Cakes

In downloading old pictures off of my newly repaired cameral I found these pics from Lilly Faith's first birthday. I never posted them and cannot fail to do so. Lauren has become quite the birthday party hostess lately. She has decorated and made cakes for Lilly Faith, Mama and Annagrace. She loves to bake and decorate cakes. I am thinking maybe a cake decorating class might be worth pursuing since she seems to love doing this.

Remembering the First Year

I am feeling a bit nostalgic tonight remembering that one year ago tonight I was preparing to get up the next morning and go into the hospital for Lilly Faith's induction. She will be turning one tomorrow. This year has absolutely flown by, and I love my baby girl so much. She adds such a sweetness to our family. Here are some pictures of her first year, and hopefully I will post more tomorrow.

So Thankful for This Girl!

This picture was taken several weeks back, but my baby girl is less than a month away from her first birthday! WHERE has this year gone to? The Lord has blessed us so much. I just have to say I totally HEART this little girl. She is so gentle and sweet. I am so thankful that the Lord has kept little babies in my life for over ten years now. As a little girl it was my dream to have a baby, and here I find myself having had five babies in the past ten years. The Lord has been good.
My baby girl is holding onto things and letting go and taking some steps holding my hand. She is getting strong on her legs. She likes to play patty cake and peek a boo. She also gets a lot of amusement from watching all the carrying ons of her siblings. She says Da Da and Ma Ma and brings lots of joy to our family. How my heart LOVES this precious gift from the Lord.
Looking back and remembering how early on in my pregnancy we thought we had lost her. The doctor said things were not looking good. Having been through a previous miscarriage we were certain that was the path we were going down again. How grateful I am that the Lord surprised us with a turn around in blood tests and allowed the pregnancy to carry on giving us another precious daughter.

Eight Months

Well, since Lilly Faith is days away from turning nine months it is due time I post her eighth month picture. You can see how much she is growing. She says Mama and Dada now. She is sooo sweet.

Growing Up

This little girl is growing up so fast. She is now six months old and starting to really branch out with much curiosity about this world. She is transitioning from little baby content to lay around to very busy little baby who wants everything within her reach.

We bought a new high chair after four babies used our first one. The new chair has a plastic tray with an eating tray that fits onto the main tray. This way we can clean the pull off tray and not have to take the main tray off the chair every time. Is that clear as mud? Anyway, she is doing well in her new chair and has decided she really loves rice cereal. She is screaming for more, so we are trying to teach her the baby signs for more.

We are trying something new in our family. Every night before dinner we are going to try to sing a hymn. We will sing the same hymn for the whole month and hopefully have it memorized by the end of the month. Anyway, we sang "Blessed Assurance" tonight, and Lilly Faith seemed to enjoy the singing.

We are very excited that we have a new cousin being born tomorrow. Lilly Faith will have a girl cousin just six months younger than her. My brother and his wife are having their first baby. We are excited!

Six Months

This is Lilly Faith's six month picture. It is not the best as we were running out the door and in a hurry. She is now six months and precious in every way! We did not give her any food until she turned six months. That is different from what we did with some of the others. Maybe we were just too busy to think about it. Nonetheless she is now eating cheerios and some rice cereal. We will be adding more new delicacies by and by. She is not crawling but is pushing up on her arms. She definitely gets around by rolling on the floor. She is very observant and loves for people to talk to her. She has two bottom teeth that I think are just adorable. :) One reason I think she may not be crawling yet is because our whole downstairs is tile flooring. She has not had as much tummy time because of that. She does have floor time when we are upstairs though. We have a shaggy sort of carpet, and she likes to feel the texture. It is so fun to watch her grow and discover things. Well, that is the Lilly Faith six month update. Come back later for the seventh month report. :)

Getting Ready

Lilly Faith is six months old. As you can see she is thinking about crawling, but she has not figured out how to use her legs yet. She gets around by rolling around on the floor, and I know she will be up on those legs before we know it.

Five Months

Here is Lilly Faith at five months. I have to say I am humbled by her SWEETNESS! She has the most docile, sweet personality. We are enjoying her sooo much. She is rolling over, laughing, squeeling, pushing up on front arms, playing with toys, and has two front teeth on lower gums. During her fifth month our family upsized to a twelve passenger van instead of our suburban. Matt and I finally caved in and decided it is time for the big homeschool van. :) It is very roomy, and I think it is going to function really well. We are looking forward to spending Christmas with our sweet baby girl!

Lilly Faith's Christmas Present

We decided to give Lilly Faith an early Christmas present. She is getting so big!

Lilly Faith Four Months and Motherly Musings

Lilly Faith turned four months on November the eighth. She is getting so much personality smiling, cooing, turning over, interacting, etc. She is a joy to us all.

I have been thinking this week about how much our children are our ministry. They are God's sanctifying work in our lives. There is nothing like children to bring out the worst in us, and the more children I have the more I see the ugliness of my own selfishness. The Lord uses my children to prune my character and make me depend upon Him more and more. I love what Nancy Leigh DeMoss said, "Anything that makes us need God is good, and what makes a mother need God more than having children?" So true!!!

In recent days I have had moments of desperation feeling that I'm in over my head at times. I feel like the Lord is using our growing family once more to show me my utter helplessness apart from Him. He has me where He wants me when I feel desperate and needy. It is a healthy place to be. I also feel that He continues to show me how greatly blessed we are with each of our children. They are a ministry with eternal value.

Yes, if I did not have so many I could have more freedom. I could focus more on my physical appearance, I could have lunch with girlfriends, I could shop more, pour myself into hobbies, fixing up my home, and even involve myself in good pursuits. Those are things that I have laid on the alter for this season of my life. I am working hard to put my priorities in order. First God, then husband and children. I wish I could make a one time decision and I would always have things in balance, but alas this is a daily dying to self process and daily choosing to say, "Lord, what next?" "Lord, what would you have me to do today?" "Lord, please just help us to accomplish your will for this day!" I am learning to relinquish my own agendas and just be available for the Lord to work through me each day. I am learning to be flexible.

I see more and more that my children are a gift to me and bring me much joy. However, this whole thing is much bigger than my personal happiness. Matt and I are choosing to engage in kingdom work as we raise our children. I started out the journey of motherhood thinking about our happiness in having what I envisioned as the perfect family. Well, I am learning that all of this is not about my happiness. Joy is just an added blessing. This is about the work that the Lord has called us to. What could be more fulfilling than laying down my life to disciple these little children whom the Lord has entrusted to my care? I think for a woman there is no higher calling. I am privileged that the Lord has allowed me to be a mother and is teaching me so much through this journey.

I thought I was a strong christian before children, but children have shown me the reality of my selfishness and how desperately I need Christ moment by moment. I have daily moments of feeling overwhelmed, but it is a moment by moment walk and choosing to turn to Christ one situation at a time. I would be embarrassed to admit how often I blow it. I am learning, I am growing, I have a long way to go. I thank my Heavenly Father for stretching me and growing me through the process. I thank Him for stretching me out of my comfort zone and asking more of me than I feel I have to give. It is through the stretching that I am growing. His ways are always best!

The children and I were reading from Luke chapter one yesterday. The angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah and told him about the coming birth of his son John the Baptist. John the Baptist would prepare the way for the Savior who would offer hope to a hurting world. One of the things John would do is, "Turn the hearts of the fathers to the children." Luke 1:17 It struck me that when things are right and as God would have them to be that parents hearts are turned toward children. Unfortunately in our culture today children are not valued as gifts. Many children are raising themselves because their parents are too busy. Many parents are more preoccupied in careers, community service, church ministry, etc. God wants parents hearts to be turned towards their children. It saddens my heart when I see parents celebrating every opportunity to drop kids off here or there to get rid of them. I know we need breaks. I would be the first to admit that, but I have to keep looking at my heart and asking hard questions about where my heart is. God wants my heart to be continually turned towards Him, towards my husband, and towards my children. I have to be so careful to not let "Good" things become more of a focus than the obvious ministry right under my nose. My husband and children are my first and primary ministry at this season of my life.

Well, that was a long happy fourth month birthday to Lilly Faith. She is a doll; I am so thankful for her. I just felt like writing out some of my musings on motherhood. These are some of the thoughts that have been mulling around in my head this week. God has blessed me so much with our five wonderful blessings. I am blessed.

Lilly Faith is Three Months

I am very late in posting this since Lilly Faith turned three months on October 8th. I think I am late in posting every month, but at least it gets posted at some point. :) Doesn't she look huge? She is growing like a weed, loves to babble and smile. She is the sweetest, easiest baby imaginable. She is sleeping through the night every night now. That is a huge blessing to us! What can I say, I just love and adore this precious gift from the Lord.

Lilly Faith 2 Months

Here I go with more catch up blogging. Our sweet Lilly Faith turned 2 months on September the eighth. Time seems to fly faster with every baby. We are so incredibly blessed to have this little bundle of sweetness in our family. She is smiling a lot and sometimes starts cooing and babbling at us.

She is on average having her last feeding around nine and then not feeding again until between five and seven the next morning. That is fabulous! She does not always go straight through the night. Some nights she does wake up once, but overall she is sleeping really well at night. We attribute her doing so well to the flexible scheduling we've had her on since day one. Basically we have taken a lot of ideas from the book "Babywise" about how to put a baby on a routine of eat, play and sleep. This enables their bodies to get the calories they need in the day, to have enough wake time during the day, and to also get the naps they need. Every baby is different, but this routine has worked beautifully for Lilly Faith. We have tried it to some degree with all of our babies, but we have had better success with the last two. I think that is because they have been easy babies and we have had a lot better parental insight as to what it really is they are needing when they cry. I think with Lauren, our first baby, we thought she needed to eat every time she cried. That was a big mistake as it turned into demand feeding with her. Everytime she was unsettled she would want to nurse. She wouldn't take full feedings just "snacks" and then I would end up being on demand all the time. Through the years Matt and I have become much more at ease with parenting newborns. Now we can better distinguish the difference between the "I'm hungry cry" and the "I'm tired cry." Anyway, between Lilly Faith being an easy baby and us being more seasoned parents I'm happy to report that things are going very well with her. She is the easy part of our job. The schooling and discipling, training, etc. of the older children is what is challenging at this point. I know the Lord has much growth for us in those areas as well. I'm constantly asking Him to guide us and help us in this parenting journey. It seems there is always something new and challenging. I have to say that having the sweetness of a little baby in the house brings joy and laughter that is healthy for all ages.

Sweet Brother

I am slow in posting this, but my sweet Gabriel requested that this picture make it on my blog. :) Can you tell he likes being close to his baby sister?

Look Who Turned One Month Already!!!

Lilly Faith turned one month old on Sunday. She is growing so incredibly fast. She has been such a sweet baby, and I am savoring each moment that I can just love on her. She has recently started making some new little sounds. I think she is trying to discover her voice, and there have been a few smiles too. The kids love it when they get to hold her. She is a doll, and we all adore her. I am so thankful for this precious gift.

The pink blanket was crocheted by her Grandma Adams. She has made a baby blanket for each of our babies. They are treasures to us.

Cute Little Froggy

I wanted to post a few pics of my wee one who is growing all too quickly. This is one of my favorite newborn outfits on her. The footsies look like Mary Janes. She has long lanky legs, and I think she looks like a little frog in this suit.

How appropriate then that she has a froggy bath towel given to her by her Grandmother Griffin.

What a cute face!

Going Home

I had mixed emotions about leaving the hospital with Lilly Faith. I would have loved more time to spend with her one on one and to rest, and yet it is always exciting to go home and begin life with a new family member in the mix. The hospital booted me out, like it or not, after two nights. I really think mommies of more than three children should be allowed a third night. :) Wouldn't that be nice. Well, here are some pics of our preparations to go home. Here I am holding Lilly Faith right before dressing her in her going home outfit.

Here she is in her little sister onsie. I bought size newborn which fit her really well.

Here we are shortly before leaving. Just waiting to be discharged.

The children were so excited to see their new sister come home. I have heard, "Can I hold her?" over and over since returning home. I am glad they love her.

Since returning home I've been consumed with the normal newborn care many hours each day. I'm also trying hard not to overdo things too much this time around. I'm trying to get more rest than I did the last two times. Also, in any spare moment I've been preoccupied with unpacking boxes and planning out our new school year. Yes, there is never a dull moment around here. Not even in the wee hours of the morning. With a new baby we even have lots of activity going on all through the night. We are tired, but we are also feeling very blessed. It has been a huge blessing that Matt was able to take this past week off of work, and my mother has been coming out everyday to help as well. I am thankful for all the help they have given me with the children and around the house. What a blessing they have been to me.

Growing Family

Lilly Faith was born on July 8th at 10:59 a.m. She weighed 7 lb. 7 oz. and was 19" long. She has been our smallest baby.

Our family sure has grown over the past nine and a half years when we were blessed with our first baby.

Here is a picture of us with my parents and brother and sister in law.

In My Arms at Last

I have had the privilege of this kind of special moment five times now. There is nothing like holding a new baby and meeting him/her for the first time. Time stands still and joy is in the air. I got to watch Lilly Faith get comfortable with opening her eyes and adjusting to her new environment. What a miracle new life is. How privileged I am to have had this kind of moment not once, not twice, not three times, not four, but five times. Thank you, Lord, for your precious gifts to us!

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord." _Ps 127:3

It Is Time!

I wanted to do a big post on the birth of Lilly Faith, but I have been a bit preoccupied and it hasn't happened. Maybe I will just do several shorter posts. The picture below is of me at about five a.m. on July 8th. Matt and I were about to leave for the hospital for the induction. I was sooooo beyond ready to have sweet Lilly Faith. I kept praying that she would come early, but the Lord had other plans. Looking back I see His perfect timing. The birth was the easiest yet; things went really well. I give Him the praise for that.

We had a scare the night before we went in. The phone rang just as we were getting ready to go to sleep. It was the hospital asking us to call first thing in the morning, before going in, to make sure they had an available bed for me. So, I went to bed praying once again for God's perfect timing and that if it be His will our induction not be delayed. He heard our prayers; Matt called at four a.m. and the nurse said to come on. I got up at 4:15 and we left around five. This put us at the hospital at around 5:30 when the induction was immediately started. Our sweet Lilly Faith made her appearanc at 10:59 a.m. We are so thankful for the Lord's faithfulness.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." - Lamentations 3:23