Tiny Dancer

Yesterday was Emma's very first dance performance. It was so sweet. She was nervous and didn't start dancing until the end of the song, but luckily Ms. Sarah has them perform twice, and the second time she danced from the beginning! Nana, Daddy, Mommy and Ava were there to watch, and her older sisters would have been if they hadn't been in school.
Their costumes were simple, just black leotards with Christmas ribbon. She wore the black leotard that Hannah wore on her first day of dance...*sniff* It is so much fun to have a 2nd set of girls to get to relive all of the fun things I enjoyed with the older two!!

Ava Brooke

Surprise! We have a new baby! Actually, she's almost 5 months old, I just haven't blogged about her yet.
Ava is such a sweet blessing...she is such a happy baby, and is the only one who looks like me as a baby (the other three were their daddy all the way!).

She's pretty much happy all the time, and her sisters absolutely adore her (who can blame 'em?)!

Christmas!

Wow--ok, it's been 14 months since I last blogged...it's been a little busy this past year....selling a house, moving to an apartment, building a house, having a 4th baby girl, sending my 1st baby girl to middle school, moving to a new house--surely you can understand why I'm so behind?

Just wanted to quickly blog about Christmas decorating...it's been a challenge this year, considering we've only been in our house a month and 70% of our junk is still in boxes. But, we've managed to get it done, for the most part.



Above is a picture of our tree....below is the reason the angel isn't on top this year, for the first time in 16 or so years....



Emma managed to dissassemble our angel...hopefully it will be back together later today. Emma has managed to break 5 or six of our ornaments this year....I keep putting them higher and she keeps finding new ones...

Pumpkin Season!!!

I really can't believe it's FALL!!! This is my favorite time of year....October through New Years...I look forward all year to the crisper, dryer air, the pumpkin-y, cinammon-y smells and food, and the beginning of the holiday season in Nov. You throw in my birthday, Olivia's birthday and Christmas, and it's no wonder I love it!!!!

Hannah and Olivia were out of school last Friday, so we took a road trip with some friends to Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls. We hadn't been in 3 years, and boy had it changed!! The hayride was a completely different experience, and it seemed like there were a lot more pumpkins.....







We had a blast---Emma just loved being able to run all over the place without being reigned in (no water to fall in, no lamps to pull over on herself, no cat food to eat, etc) and the older two just loved being with friends and being in the sunshine.

We painted pumpkins, went on a hayride, walked under a road, took tons of pictures...no really, over 200---and petted the goats. Leave it to mommy to be the only one who got a sunburn....

Here are some shots from years past!

Frustrated with Blogger

Ok, so I know it's been over 2 months since I blogged.....sorry Mary! I am going to attempt to get back in the fray, but I am so frustrated with blogger I am considering leaving them....Todd says I should use our mac site to do our blog, so I might be posting a link here in the near future. In the meantime, be please patient!

Sweetness

"I love mommy dady hannah Emma I love Erye wun in my famly i am thangck full love olivia i love my famly !"

------The note Olivia (she's 6) wrote to me tonight on our computer.....How sweet is that?

Time.....

It seems time is going too fast.....how can I slow it down? I wonder if there's just too much going on....Whoever came up with "lazy days of summer" didn't have 3 little girls, a small group from church meeting in their house, Bible study on Tuesdays and must have been terribly well organized.

Tonight, Emma was having trouble going to sleep (as she has lately) and as I was rocking her for the third time in about 30 minutes, I realized that I was thinking of it as somewhat of a nuisance....I was trying to mop the floor to get ready for Todd to come home with some friends to play the Wii, and she just wouldn't go down.....Then, it hit me.....What a blessing it is to rock my baby to sleep.....I can't rock my first baby to sleep anymore, she's almost as tall as I am. I hate it that I don't live in the moment as I should....my precious baby, 12 months old, who it seems was born just yesterday, just wanted mommy to rock her one more time brfore she could fall asleep for the night, and I was annoyed.....Talk about conviction. The Holy Spirit put me in my place....

Those precious moments holding my baby girl, rocking her softly to sleep, holding her little body in my arms and running my fingers through her hair may be numerous now, but are so fleeting......

I miss being able to hold my older ones like that....I can't even carry them to bed anymore.

So, mommies, if you still have babies, rock them again, even if some parenting books say not to-----just cuddle them in your arms and rock them. Before you know it, they'll be too big and you won't even realize when you're rocking them for the last time.

Emma woke up last night 3 times in a row....she normally sleeps all night, but she has a cold and isn't sleeping well....Todd and I have dreaded going to bed these last few nights, not knowing if we'll get to sleep all night or not. Now, I realize, maybe God has been giving us just a few more chances to rock her....and tonight, I think I'm looking forward to it!