So many things

There are so many things runing through my head as I sit here in the dark.  Hubby trying to get those last minutes of sleep, little one asleep, big 2 playing nicely and quietly in their room. 

A little devotion I read this morning talks about these well-read versesL "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." —Matthew 11:28-30

I have been wrestling in my head a lot lately about how I do not claim of the almightly POWER that is inside me through the Holy Spirit.  Jesus sent the Holy Spirit for us, and yet, I think I can do it better!  God, please humble my heart, take back control.....I need you.  The prayer at the bottom of the devotion is worth repeating:

I exchange my weariness for His strength,
I exchange my weakness for His power,
I exchange my darkness for His light,
I exchange my problems for His solutions,
I exchange my burdens for His freedom,
I exchange my frustrations for His peace,
I exchange my turmoil for His calm,
I exchange my hopes for His promises,
I exchange my afflictions for His balm of comfort,
I exchange my questions for His answers,
I exchange my confusion for His knowledge,
I exchange my doubt for His assurance,
I exchange my nothingness for His awesomeness,
I exchange the temporal for the eternal,
I exchange the impossible for the possible,
I exchange my fear for His love.

Merry Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve from our cozy home to yours.  Praise Jesus for all the blessings we've experienced this year, as well as the struggles!  James 1: 2-4 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

I clung to these 5 verses this spring when we lost Ben and Mike.  Romans 5: 1-5 "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

Not the most traditional "Christmas" verses, but uplifting and encouraging all the same!!  Jesus is our Hope and our Peace!  May you experience his blessings this year!

My Girl Snuggles

This was taken after church last Sunday.  Anna passed out on me, which rarely happens, and stayed there for over an hour!  I was in and out of sleep and Cara wanted to cuddle too.  She did not however want her picture taken! :)

Eric's home!!

We are BEYOND blessed to have Daddy as a teacher!  It's long hours during the year, but the 2 weeks at Christmas and summers are great!  We've been making good use of our time since his last day a week ago.  Saturday we took the kids to 2nd Baptist's crazy kids fest.  Think puppets, contemporary songs, but words changed to be about Christmas (All the little angles, all the little angels (to the tune of Beyonce's all the single ladies), with a little elvis and zz top thrown in! :)  They were both MESMERIZED.  We got there 10 minutes late and had to sit in the back, but the kids had a great time!

The set (the girl in the middle, who was way cute, her name was Cara!) :)

Hands in mouth (as always), can't take his eyes off the show!

Cara and I

Anna, "Stop with the flash mom!"

After that we headed to down town old Katy because we saw advertised a winter festival complete with snow, and some vendors, from 10-6.  We didn't read the fine print because the snow wasn't scheduled to show up until 1 pm (explain to me how on a 75 degree day why they wouldn't want the snow in the morning before it gets so hot and all the little ones go down for naps!!).  So we walked around a bit.  They had this train built out of wood (I think Santa may have been there at 1 too--and sat on the train), so the kids played on that a bit.  We were there about 20 minutes tops, but they had a great time!

And here's one random picture of Micah trying on Cara's shoes....just because I can :)

Grandma Betty

For those of you that don't know, Grandma Betty is my biological dad's mom.  She's been so sweet to us over the years, and we love her so.  She lives in Sinton, near Corpus, so Eric and the kids and I usually saw her once a year or so when we used to go down there for his band trips.  I felt bad because we hadn't been since April 2009 when Micah was 6 months old. 

She's been getting more and more sick. A slight heart problem, diabetes, some organ functions are decreasing.  She went into a coma before Thanksgiving, and though they didn't expect her to make it out, she did!  Bailey and I talked and we wanted to see her one last time before anything bad happened.  The doctors only gave her 2 months :(, so a couple weeks ago, she, Anna (after checking with our pedi) and I hopped in the car for a day trip to Corpus.  It was so good to get some alone time with Bailey!  I don't say quiet time because Anna was with us :), but she was pretty good for 6 + hours in the car all day!  We got to talk, catch up, pray, eat, vent, love.  I love my sister!  She has turned into an amazing woman, wife and mommy!  I don't tell her enough how proud I am of her and how she has handled all the challenges of this past year.  Jack is a blessed baby and Baby Ben up in heaven is smiling down on you each day of your life B! 

Anyways, we got down to Corpus and didn't quite know what to expect.  My aunt had told me she didn't speak much when they were there, only 6 words in an hour, so I wasn't sure how it would go.  The nurse said to go on in and talk to her that she'd love it.  It was so nice because as she saw us her eyes lit up!  I could tell she wasn't expecting us.  She was a bit confused at times, but we had a great chat, and she LOVED seeing Anna!  Grandma Betty looks a lot different, she's lost 50 + pounds in 2 months.  She seemed so fragile lying in bed, but I was so happy we made the trip.  She talked to us and the baby.  Every time Anna would fuss or make noises, Betty would comment on how happy and cute she was.  I'm not positive she knew it was Anna (vs. Micah), but I'm glad they got to meet.  Here's a picture of Anna and her great-grandma.  She may not be 100% but she has pretty red nails :).  We all love you Grandma Betty!

Christmas Eve

Just as her brother did 2 years ago, Anna gave us the Christmas miracle of sleep!  She went down around 7 or so, after eating at 5:15.  She woke up at 8:15 pm and I fed her again, and slept until 5:15 am!!  Woo hoo :).  I just wish I had gone to bed before midnight!  And now I'm just up thinking about things and can't go to sleep. 

Well, we are mostly on the upside of almost having two Christmases in a row of sickness.  I'm definitely not complaining because we've been well all fall!  We started with runny nose (which if you have lung problems like Cara, that means you will have bronchitis almost every time) last Saturday.  Micah felt warm on Sunday morning, so we gave him Motrin and kept the big kids home from church.  They went to my mom's on Sunday afternoon for a 2 day visit.  We sent them with the inhalers, some bromfed (spelling), motrin, etc.  Mom had them and though they played hard the whole time and had a blast, when we got them back Tuesday evening they were coughing non stop.  So, we were headed to the doctor Wednesday morning.  Micah doesn't usually get bronchitis as fast and frequent as Cara, and I noticed he kept falling down a lot, so I figured he had ear infections.  He was the only one that had a (low grade) fever.  Sure enough, he has a double ear infection.  We caught before it was bad at all (she said they would have both been inflammed by that afternoon), so he's on meds to kick that to the curb.  Cara of course has bronchitis, and one ear that was a little red.  So now the hard part is keeping them 'away' from Anna as much as possible.  She has been fine, sounded like she was getting a little snot as she was going to bed last night, but she slept great, so that's a plus! 

We've had 3 doses of our antibiotics and everyone is feeling great.  Micah is cutting his 2 year molars, so he's overall cranky, but nothing a little tylenol can't fix. 

In other news, Eric, Anna and I got to go visit Bailey and Jack on Tuesday before we picked up the kids.  Eric hadn't seen Jack since he was 8 days old, when he was being transfered to Women's.  He's changed a little ;).  Jack had so much fun just staring at us both with our glasses and Eric's hat.  I am Aunt tickle monster, so I got him to laugh a bunch.  He's so rock hard abs, which is so different than my squishy baby!! :)  He had fun playing with Uncle Eric too.  We gave him his Christmas gift and he seemed oh so excited ;) hehe. 

Here we are, E taking the pic.

We can't wait for the day that Cara and Micah can meet Jack!!!!  They both know who he is from pictures.  Their Christmas card is hanging by our dinner table, and they always talk about Aunt Bailey, Uncle Mack (that's what they call him) and Baby Jack!  3 more months!! :)

Here are some more cute pictures from that day!

I was tickling him:

He and E were both a little mesmerized by the flash ;)

Aunt Bailey and Anna

I'm going to try to finish a couple more posts since I'm the only one up and I finally uploaded pictures the other day!

All over the place

I titled this first, because it's 5 am, and I've been up for a few hours, so I figured this post will be just that.....all over the place.  I've been running blog posts through my head for quite some time, yet I never sit down to the computer to write them.  Currently, M and C are at my mom's until tomorrow (so of course I can't sleep!).  We were going to let A start crying it out last night with them gone, but then Eric and I got greedy :).  We said, if we start Friday, maybe she'll be sleeping by the time their gone and we'll all get some rest!! So we did.  Friday night was rough.  There was lots of 'joyous shrieking' (that's for those in the 9:30 service yesterday).  Like hours.  But she got to where she would calm herself down.  So I did go in and feed her at 3 something, but she had not ate in over 8 hours!  Finally, more than 3!  Then she slept until past 8, yay! 

Last night was WAY better!  She cried for about 20-30 minutes one time but then slept until 5 am!  Tonight, her last time to eat was around 5:45, so I figured she'd wake one more time to eat, but she didn't (and I mistakenly fell asleep around 8:30, which is probably why I'm up now).  So when she woke up at 1:30 and it had been almost 8 hours, I went ahead and fed her (for both of our comforts). I'm having to adjust to not feeding every 3-4 hours at night, so I've been having to pump a lot.  I know some people don't like the cry it out method, but I didn't write this for you.  I wrote it so I could remember some details of poor Anna's life, because I can barely remember what happened a few days ago! :)

I need to keep typing, God is doing some things in our lives, and I want to write about them....but guess who's crying, and what momma figured out I really do need to sleep tonight because I have aprons to sew and a lasagna to make today! :)gnite!

How things change in a year!

It's just crazy to me how God's hand is in our lives, the big stuff, the small stuff, all the stuff.  I NEVER thought I'd have the year I have had, yet I see God throughout it all.  He has increased friendships, and decreased some, and renewed some.  He has held us up when we needed it and broken down walls when we needed it.  Here are just a few things.

A year ago today, I remember the day because it was my college roomies birthday (Hi Jamie)........

I realized I should probably take a pregnancy test, and sure enough, little Miss Anna gave us a positive. 

Things were looking up with Mike's dad.  They told him if he keeps going as he was, he could live another 30 years. 

Bailey was pre-bed rest, pregnant with what we thought was only 1 child.

Eric's band was much smaller and he only had 1 assistant band director.

I had a great accountability partner and we were thinking of adding another.

In the last year, God's added a beautiful, sweet, a little high maintenance daughter to our household.  (Not sure yet if he's using that as a 'you're done') hehe.

God has taken away a sweet baby boy named Benjamin Ray after only 6 days of life.  But they were a sweet 6 days, and I know his mommy and daddy wouldn't have wanted it any other way!  God's plan is plan A every time!
He also added Mr. Jack Harrison.  One of sweet nephews, and He made my sister a Mom!  Via one of the hardest ways possible, and she and Matt have been a testament for Him! 

God took away the best dad to my hubby and his brother and sister (and me too).  I was only in Mike's life for 11 or so years, but I loved that man.

Eric's band grew so much, they added another assistant--what a blessing that has been in the paperwork department!

We are doing life with (many friends) but two specific couples and we couldn't be happier as both of them are about to welcome in 1-2 more kids EACH through a foster to adopt situation.

God has blessed us with heartache, yet He's been there through it all.  Pulling us closer to Him.  He's blessed me with great bible studies that dove me into His word more.  He's given me a closer relationship with my sister and mom and mother in law.  He has really had me start questioning my comfortableness in our lives, and wanting to reach out and really start serving Him and His priorities more.  The list could go on, but as we celebrate a year of knowing Anna was coming, I praise Him!  Through all the storms of life.  Here are some pictures we had taken Thursday of our biggest blessings!

And sweet Jack :)