Payton's Trinity

Payton and I were talking the other day and she was asking me about the trinity. I went on to explain it to her and she seemed satisfied with my explanation. After a few minutes of silence she said "Mom I want to be a trinity.... Payton, American Girl Doll, and Princess. Oh yeah!"
Love her little mind.

Ivy Catherine - 3 months

Yesterday was Ivy's 3 month birthday! Part of me feels like it was just yesterday she was born and then at the same time it feels like she has been here forever. We just love this little girl and so glad she is ours. Ivy is a sweet content happy little girl. She was a fussy little one for awhile because she had an ear infection and I had no idea. She never had a fever or seemed sick so I just thought that I finally had a fussy baby. Ever since she got better she has been just content as the other three were as babies. She smiles anytime someone speaks to her, plays contently, and sleeps great. Isn't there just something priceless about an infants smile? Oh man, we could just eat her up when she smiles and coos, it never gets old. I love having an infant again because there is just something so simple about their needs. All they need is a pair of arms and a bottle. After a day of child rearing being with her is refreshing, I can meet all of her needs so easily and it is nice.

a great night

We got to spend a whole night and day with the Goforth girls and man was it fun. The girls had a great time swimming, dressing up, playing ballet, and being together until their eyes closed. The big girls (Catherine and I) had fun catching up. It was exactly what I needed. I have to brag on my friend a minute..... Catherine is an amazing mom, wife and friend. Everytime I am with her I am encouraged to be better. Just watching her love her children, talk about Michael, and those she loves is refreshing. I can learn so much from her, she loves others well. I am glad to call her my best friend, what a blessing her family is to ours. We had a great time I just wish that we could have a sleepover more often, it left me a little homesick for my friend. Love you Goforth family!




ready set jump



catherine and sweet Molly Ryan



sweet friends

Memorial Day

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Memorial Day

Our first trip to the lake for the summer! The lake is my heaven and I think it is because of the memories that are made there each trip. I love watching my kids have so much fun and make their own childhood memories like I did. I was Payton's age when Nani and Pawpaw built the house. This year all four older girls get to spend the night in Mimi and Pawpaw's room. Pawpaw put up bunk beds for the two older girls. These are the beds that Stephanie and I used to sleep in and it is fun to watch our girls enjoy them too. Harrison had a great time too because he got to be OUTSIDE.... his heaven. He loved being with his Pawpaw and Pawpaw Jimmy. Ivy got extra loving too. I think she was held at all times by myself, Nani, Mimi, Stephie or by an eager sister or cousin. She deserved every bit of the extra love. Ivy got to experience her first boat ride nap, the world's best place to take a nap if you ask me. It was great. Claire asked this morning if we could go back for a little bit more fishing!

Endings are hard

Payton's last day of preschool was today and it was hard. I had several moments where my eyes started to burn and well up with tears and my mouth started to quiver when trying to answer "Mommy why are you crying." It was hard because I realized it was the first real end of something with my kids. Preschool sort of defines a stage in Payton's life and now it is over and on to a new stage. A great stage it will be, but today we ended her preschool years. As the girls got in the car this morning I started feeling those tears and ache in my heart because it was the last time I would take her through carpool and watch them walk in together. I LOVE watching my girls walk into school together, I like them together.
I have loved these years watching Payton learn, make friends, have good days and a few bad days, and always come out of school smiling and waving to me as I pull through carpool. It has been fun!
We are excited about Kindergarten next year and anxiously await it. Today I realized that I may be okay on the first day of Kindergarten because beginnings are exciting, it is just endings that are hard. Then I may be fooling myself, who knows.
I found Payton in her bedroom this afternoon crying and when I asked her why she said "I am sad my friends will not be at my new school next year. I want to stay and go to school with them at preschool again." If it was that easy to keep her in church preschool until she was 18 I would. It has been fun!

Graduation

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Preschool Graduation

It has finally come - preschool graduation! Where did the time go? I remember walking Payton to her class the first year, watching her meet friends, going to all the parties and programs, getting to know each of her fabulous teachers and now this chapter for her at Grayson United Methodist Preschool is over. The whole family was there to celebrate her and I think she felt very special. Jonathan and I have spent the last few weeks looking over videos and pictures of her since she was itty bitty and we both go from laughing to crying and then laughing again. She has grown up a lot this year..... Grayson Elementary here she comes.

My favorite day ..... Mother's Day

I have decided that Mother's Day is my favorite day of the year. I have so much to be thankful for. The kids go shopping with Jonathan on Saturday and it is always fun to see what they pick out for me. Their excitement is the best gift. They could hardly wait to give me their gift and tell me about why they chose it for me. The gifts are usually very thoughtful and unique. Jonathan always spoils me with some meaningful piece of jewelry, which I love.
This year we dedicated Ivy Catherine at church on Mother's day. My family was there to share it with us and surround us in prayer. It was a very special day. Our deepest desire for all of our kids is that they will love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind. That one day they would recognize the love God has for them and the sacrifice He made on the cross. We want them to know His joy.

Life with 4

So life with four is fun, exhausting, busy, silly, constant, and fulfilling. Going from three to four has been the biggest adjustment for us. I have time for very little other than being Mommy. This has been hard, but good for me. Before Miss Ivy I could be Mommy, clean the house, run errands, cook dinner and hang out with Jonathan at night. Now I am just Mommy and that is okay. Some days are heaven because I play with the kids and hold Ivy and all is happy. Some moments are disastrous with tears, sad faces, snotty noses, a frustrated toddler, crying baby, and a tense mommy. These are just moments! The girls have been extrememly patient, helpful and forgiving, and luckily Harrison and Ivy will never remember these moments.

One thing that has helped me have less of these moments has been getting back to being intentional in my parenting. I have recently come across a blog that I love called 1+1+1=1. It has given me great ideas of educational play and so far the kids love them. Just today I started trying to really teach Harrison his colors. Our first color is Blue! This morning I collected all of our blue toys and blue crafts like pompom, crayons, paint and play dough. As we played with all of our blue things I talked a lot about blue. The girls had fun with this too. He had fun even though when Jonathan came home I tried to get him to show daddy what he learned and he just stared. He had been saying "bue" all day. Oh well.
Claire and I worked on her letter recognition and she enjoyed some of the activities I pulled from this site. When she was done she was DONE and wanted to play. Tomorrow we are going to do a letter scavenger hunt through a magazine. When I tried this today her attention span was over, but Payton enjoyed it so Claire and I will try it tomorrow. Payton and I worked on reading Hop on Pop. She did better than I hoped and was eager to read it to Jonathan when he got home. It feels good to have our day a little more structured with purposeful play.
So all in all life with 4 is good! No matter what the day has been like, we are reminded of our gift each night as we go check on them one more time. Then we go to bed talking about how much we love each one of them and the sweet things they did that day. I love it!

Welcome Ivy Catherine

Ivy blessed us with her presence on March 2nd at 5:28 pm. I was induced that morning and had a wonderful day. The delivery was pretty much effortless and very quiet. Jonathan and I both agree that it felt like a silent birth, even Miss Ivy was quiet. It was very sweet! We were surrounded by family at the hospital and we were eager to introduce our precious baby girl, especially to her siblings. The moment the kids saw Ivy for the first time did not disappoint. They had precious smiles on their face as Jonathan showed them their new sister. Harrison squealed with excitement and gave her an unprompted kiss on her forehead. The girls immediately wanted to hold her. With each child I feel like the love in my heart becomes even more overwhelming. Seeing my children love their new sibling and dote on her just does not get any better.


We had a little "moment" with Ivy after we got her home. We laid her down after she ate around midnight and then we went to sleep too. At 2:30 I heard her gasp and then I heard nothing so I jumped up, grabbed her out of the pack n play and realized very quickly that she was not breathing. She was what I call PICU blue and was not moving any air. See was still alert and looked to be choking. I immediately started doing what I knew I could do for her, but felt paralyzed because I had nothing that I needed. At the hospital I have suction and all the equipment in the world to help babies, but I had nothing for Ivy. I started suctioning her with the bulb syringe and begged Jonathan to pray OUT LOUD!! After a good minute she started to pink back up and move air. Never did she cry like I wanted her too. Immediately I called the PICU to talk to one of the docs about bringing her in and he agreed that it was the best thing to do. Jonathan and I both felt that she choked on her own mucous(she had been doing this but not to this extent since she was born). We took her to Egleston for peace of mind and to make sure that it was not caused by anything else. They worked her up, gave her antibiotics, and monitored her for two nights. We came home with a monitor for her to wear when she is sleeping. There have not been any more episodes and we are thankful for that.
During all of this I felt a complete peace that everything was okay. After last year with Harrison I struggled with fear a lot. I had a moment the night we got home from Egleston where that fear started to creep back in until I recognized it and chose not to listen. After sharing this with a friend a few days later she told me that she and another friend had been specifically praying about this for me. God is so sweet to protect not only my children, but to protect my heart from being consumed again with fear.

Getting ready for Ivy Catherine

Well, reality is setting in now that we are just a few weeks away from meeting our sweet baby girl, Ivy Catherine. We are going to have 4 kids! Are we ready? Not sure, but we are excited to meet and start getting to know every part of this sweet baby. The girls are thrilled and eager to meet her. I anticipate telling them I am in labor or that their baby sister has arrived, to seeing their faces as they meet her for the first time, to hearing what they have to say, to seeing all four of my children together and feeling completely and totally overwhelmed with the love I have for each of them. Jonathan and I feel very blessed to be able to experience and savor this experience one last time. I am trying not to rush these last few weeks but really soak it all up knowing it will be our last pregnancy. I love feeling her move, and all of the emotions of anticipating the surprise and excitement of how her birth story will unfold. This stage of life is a gift and I want to enjoy each first that we are about to have with our sweet Ivy.

Harrison's last therapy and FEEs test

Harrison is officially free from therapy. We enjoyed and loved our therapist Ms. Anitra but we are so glad that we are released. Since Harrison is taking a couple of steps now she felt confident to let us follow a home program and follow up at 18 months if he is not walking more consistently.



The same week we went for our last swallow study. We choose a different type of study this time to better visualize Harrison's anatomy while he swallowed thin liquids. It is called a FEE study. They passed a camera through Harrison's nose down to his vocal cords and tried to get him to drink and eat yogurt and pudding. Our little man did not appreciate this at all and was quite vocal about it, which he had every right to be. It was hard to watch and I was so glad that Jonathan was there with us. At the end of the test it was 100% worth all the tears because HE PASSED!!!!! No more thicken liquids.

We saw Dr. Simon last week and she was pleased with our little guys progress. We thanked her for all that she did for us this past year, but also very glad that we can say goodbye.

Snow week

We made the most of every minute of the snow storm a few weeks ago. I was scheduled to work Saturday and Sunday so I was at work when the snow started coming down on Sunday night. All I could think about all night was how I had hoped that I would be able to get home the next morning before being snowed in all week. Well, my daddy made the slow trip to the hospital to pick me up in his truck and then we made it home slowly safe and sound. Little did we know that the week would turn into a vacation for our family. Mimi and Pawpaw spent the night, Sarah Grace and Charlotte stayed two nights with us for a slumber party, Steph and Adam spent the afternoons and evenings with us playing, eating, and watching movies. We loved having Daddy home too! The kids enjoyed the snow together, the men enjoyed the snow and sledding, and I enjoyed the food, fire and watching everyone else play. I think we need a week like this every year.

Kiki and Matt's Wedding weekend

On Wednesday night we headed to Asheville, North Carolina to start celebrating Matt and Kiki. On Thursday the girls and I went to the Bridesmaid lunch and then met the guys at the rehearsal. That night we had the rehearsal dinner which was very nice and yummy too. Friday morning was Wedding Day!!! We started off with a delicious breakfast at City Bakery and then went next door to the salon. After the salon we had just enough time to get dressed before heading to the farm for the wedding. The weather and scenery could not have been more perfect. Matt and Kiki did a wonderful job planning all the little details of the wedding that made it special. It was a fun night with family!
Another highlight of the weekend was that we got to spend good time with the Goforths. They graciously allowed us to stay at their house. It was fun to hang out with them and watch all of our kids play together. After the wedding on Friday my parents babysat for us so that we could go out with the wedding party and ring in the New Year. It was fun to spend time with such sweet friends.




having a little spa time with friends

breakfast with the bride at City Bakery - YUMMY

the weather was beautiful, warm with snow on the ground!!!!

our very handsome boys


they love their Uncle Matt









Payton saying the blessing at the wedding


time to play in the snow

Payton's 5th Birthday

Hard to believe that five short years ago this little girl made Jonathan and I parents. Wow, how much a little person can grow in just five years. I think we are really going to like five years old. We are very proud of who Payton has become and enjoy watching her grow up, even though it tugs at our heart sometimes. She is very excited to be 5! She says she will learn so much this year and get to go to kindergarten too. She wants to learn how to tie her shoes, ride a bike without training wheels, read, and more. We had a great day celebrating her starting off with breakfast and a few gifts, lunch with Kiki, and ending with a much anticipated dinner and shopping at the American Girl Bistro with Mimi and Pawpaw. I think she felt very loved and special today.




5 years exactly from the moment she was born

Christmas Day

Christmas day is usually very relaxed at our house. We play a lot and stay in our jammies until we have to get dressed. This year the day was capped off with snow! The kids loved the beautiful falling snow and fire in the fireplace.

Christmas Eve

Another wonderful year at Nani and Pawpaw Jimmy's house. The highlight of our Christmas Eve was that Harrison took his first steps!!! He walked from Daddy to sweet and beautiful Laura. It was a precious moment and there were even some happy tears in the eyes of those watching, especially mine! Then we headed home to greet Nana before going to sleep and waiting on Santa to arrive.




one of the sweetest moments of my life